The Social Network

Jesse Eisenberg & the real Mark Zuckerberg. Credit: Google images

It's the award season right now and I managed to catch this movie after wanting to watch it for so long.

A movie about Facebook is an obvious focus of interest for contemporary film makers, and  of course us Internet users. Facebook has become so popular that verbs are built upon it (i.e. Facebook me) and if you don't have a Facebook profile you are pretty much out of the loop! I was eager to watch it because I wanted to see the historical beginnings of it and was expecting it to be a light, though informative movie. I wasn't expecting it to be this thrilling and thoughtful! 

The film summarized in detail the origin of Facebook in the humble college dorm and its ascend to the huge, corporate office in Palo Alto, California. Zuckenberg quit university to expand Facebook to California on the advice of Sean Parker (who started Napster, was influential in the expansion of Facebook and also starting Chatroullete). If you have no interest in technology and social networking websites, have no fear, this movie is about friendship too. How friendship can change because of money, and how greed can change who you are.  A lot of the storyline though is centered on the lawsuit brought upon Zuckerberg by his former best friend and other students claiming that he stole their idea on Facebook. If you Google, you would know that these lawsuits were settled, and that his former best friend had his name restored back onto the masthead of FB. Read more about the film and other stuff at the official website.

Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg was excellent in his portrayal; just the right mix of geek, ambition and a wannabe jerk. Even if he doesn't win an award for his role, there should be more interesting roles coming to him because of this performance. A question that lingered for me though was if Zuckerberg was really as ruthless, introverted and sarcastic as portrayed in the movie, and was he really just under the influence of Sean Parker and thus aspired big things for Facebook because he wanted to be like Parker? (If you Google, you would have found out that Zuckerberg insisted that he did not create the site to 'meet girls' but he wanted to 'build things'! Why would he admit that he created it to 'meet girls'? Ha ha ha ha ha. They did however, manage to make sure that ever single thing worn by Zuckerberg in that movie was something that he has worn before, that's really good attention to detail!).

And is Sean Parker really that horrible? (Justin Timberlake was really excellent, and it's a pity he wasn't nominated).  And if the portrayal of Zuckerberg is really true, isn't it kind of ironic that someone as awkward , socially inept, and as friendless as that (at one point in the movie the former best friend shouted at Zuckerberg: "I was your only friend!" only to be met by a blank and inscrutable stare) would be the genius who would create the most powerful social networking website known to man (as of now)?  Other critics claimed that it was an anti-geek or anti-technology movie, but to me it was just an interesting take on how important technology is to our generation, and it was worth the two hours spent watching it and fighting my sleepy eye.

Interesting fact: Look out for Disney Star Brenda Song as  Christy Lee, the former best friend's girlfriend. I seldom see her in a serious role, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Did you guys watch it? What are your thoughts on it?
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