Rating of
4/4
Friend This Movie Immediately
Chris Kavan - wrote on 10/02/10
When I first heard about this Facebook movie, I admit I was skeptical. While I do have a profile page, I'm lucky if I check is once a week - maybe once a month. I don't do that Farmville crap, I don't update, I don't post comments - heck, I joined mainly to find out who else joined. So my attitude toward the whole thing was "meh".
Yet when I saw David Fincher was involved, I was intrigued because the man has never let me down. Then when the buzz began to build, I became not only interested, but maybe even a little anxious. Now that I've seen it, I can say that it's a movie that may define a generation - maybe not my generation, but I think it's a film that should continue to be seen not just for the characters, but for the actual idea behind social media.
Fincher continues his streak with this film. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg with the perfect mix of emotional detachment and rapid-fire delivery. From the opening scene in a crowded bar - where he is unceremoniously dumped, he high-tails it back to his dorm room where he puts his serious geek programming skills to use making up Facemash - which takes all the female pictures from the various dorms in Harvard and pits them against each other in a hottie vs. nottie battle. This, of course, earns him the ire of not only the faculty, but all the girls on campus.
It also earns him the attention of crew rowers of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who need a crack programmer to help them with their Harvard-exclusive dating site. Zuckerberg signs on, but soon is busy on another project with his friend Eduardo Saverin, which evolves into thefacebook.
The film shoots back and forth between the early days of Facebook to Zuckerberg in two trials - one against the Winklevoss twins and one against his former friend Saverin. Zuckerberg comes off as not necessarily a bad guy in all of this, but as a bit lonely, a bit jealous and ready to stick it to those people he deems unworthy. The Winklevoss brothers are the coveted finals club - and his friend is later initiated in another such club, and you can't help but feel Zuckerberg is on the outside looking in.
He may have created a social website with millions of users and generated billions of dollars, but as the the movie ends, and Zuckerberg refreshes a screen hoping his ex-girlfriend (all the way from the beginning of the film) accepts his request, you realize the man just wants a real friend.
Speaking of real friend - Justin Timberlake is on fire as Napster founder and all-around paranoid but extremely energetic visionary Sean Parker. Out of all the actors, I would expect him to earn a nomination simply for how he can go from exuberant to prick in the space of scene. He may have started out as pop singer, but he has acting chops.
This is a movie that truly speaks for a generation. Watch it with your real friends - I can only hope it spurns discussion on the impact of social media in daily life - for better or worse.
