In a few weeks, on February 27th, Oscar night, we will find out if “The Social Network” will win the Oscar for Best Picture among other awards. When all is said and done, whether it was a realistic portrayal of the founders of Facebook or just a really entertaining piece of drama, one will never really fully know. And honestly, does it matter? The Social Network is an excellent film, thoroughly entertaining and engrossing with an sharply executed script, finely edited, and excellent performances by all the major actors. Rita was waiting impatiently to see it all summer and finally caught up with it at the Quad. I was not disappointed!
By now, you may be familiar with the general plot: after getting dumped by his girlfriend, Mark Zuckerberg, Freshman at Haaa-rvard, goes back to his dorm to nurse his ego with a few beers, pulls an all-nighter and invents “Facemash”—a program that rates young women in colleges in and around Harvard on their state of attractiveness. This little bit of programming gets him in hot water with the authorities but it leads to being approached by two elite and privileged rowing athletes, Winkelvoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who want to hire him to create a network of Harvard graduates. Zuckerberg strings them along, while creating his own version for a social networking site that he names “The Facebook” which eventually becomes “Facebook”.
In one ironic moment after another, “the social network” connects people through the invention of Facebook but the real drama goes behind the scenes to examine the complex friendship between Mark Zuckerberg and his buddy and financier, Eduardo Saverin, who sees something beyond Zuckerberg’s anti-social personality, at least initially.
On one level, we as a society are so much more connected, to the ends of the globe which each other, and at the same time, like Mr. Zuckerberg, extremely isolated, in so much as to without a clue as to how we got here, social niceties not withstanding.
But the film works on so many levels: friendships and betrayal; wanting to fit in, the haves-vs. the have-nots of the elite Harvard world, competition, who’s on top?
My favorite line of the movie: “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” uttered by Sean Parker, the former inventor of Napster and scene-stealingly played by Justin Timberlake. His character will make you howl out loud with delight!
