The Social Network

The Social Network directed by David Fincher starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Rooney Mara.

This is one of best movies I’ve seen in a long time and was one of the best movies to come out in a crowded good year for movies, 2011.  I’ve been following David Fincher since I saw his movie Seven and this is his best movie and then comes Seven.  I’ve tried to isolate why I like this movie so much, I’ve seen it 4 times in two years and that’s something I don’t do with a lot of movies, but I can’t pin point why it connects with me so much.  Now I’m going to look at this movie not based on historical accuracies dealing with Mark Zuckerberg, but I’m going to judge this movie based on it being a movie.  I’m only going to look at it from that perspective, because I don’t care about how accurate or truthful everything in this movie is.  I only care about it from a movie perspective. 

It’s one of few movies I’ve seen that takes a theme and carries it all the way through the entire movie, as the theme relates to every character within the movie.  Just about every scene has to deal with the main theme in some way or the other.  It has a universal theme that connects to all people (that might be one of the reasons I like it so much) and that theme is: relationships.  Everything in this movie revolves around and deals with relationships.  

In another rarity for a Hollywood movie the opening scene of The Social Network set the entire theme of the movie up and it one of the best opening scenes in movie history, in my humble opinion.  The movie opens with Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg) on a date with Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) and in this scene everything is laid bare as Zuckerberg and Albright’s relationship is explored through some rapid fire, machine gun like dialogue.  This dialogue perfectly mirrors how relationships in our new digital and technologically advanced world have changed.  In this dialogue their relationship is explored.  A student’s relationship with fraternity clubs is explored.  A person’s relationship with class is explored.  America’s student relationship versus a foreign student’s relationship is explored.  Zuckerberg’s relationship with his intellect versus his relationship in dealing with people is explored.  Everything this movie is about and everything, which happens later after this scene, is all set up because of this scene.  This scene is paramount to the movie, everything hinges on the relationships of this scene.  It is one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve seen in a long time, from the directing to editing to acting, everything is done to perfection in this scene.  When Albright breaks up with Zuckerberg, she sets into motion everything that happens.  The founding of Facebook starts here, from a boy trying to get a girl.  Boy loses girl, it’s one of the most classic story telling scenarios that gets a little jolt from a modern age.  

I like how this movie isn’t afraid to have its main character be an asshole and continue to be an asshole throughout the whole movie, but yet he’s still an interesting character.  This movie has no real villain except Zuckerberg’s own personality, which can put everyone in conflict with him even his best friend Eduardo Saverin.  Who is the real victim of this movie, because if it wasn’t for him Zuckerberg would never have gotten the finances to start Facebook, and then Saverin gets screwed out of his shares of the Facebook for no other reason than pride.  Pride from Zucerberg and pride from Saverin, which comes down to the relationship between these two characters.  You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies, as the tag line reads.  This is never clearer in the relationship with Zuckerberg and Saverin as the movie show the breakdown of their relationship from the start of Facebook through to the lawsuits against Zuckerberg.  That’s some of the hardest things to watch in the movie is the breakdown of their friendship, because these two clearly had a friendship, but pride and other things kept that relationship from being mended.

Another thing that struck me upon watching it this time around, was how the editing was managed, considering there was at one time 3 different lawsuits going on, while the movie was also telling the main story in flash back with the lawsuits.  I never once got confused as to which lawsuit was being told or how the flash back sequences were being played out.  Everything was streamlined in a way where confusion was nonexistent.  Fincher has to be given a lot of credit here.  He brings a streamlined, polished visual elegance to this movie, along with a clear focus to scenes and editing that would not have been as good if he hadn’t been the one pulling the strings behind the camera.  I like Seven, a lot but this movie is by far his masterpiece.  And the maturity on display is simply amazing.  

But in the end this is still a story about a boy trying to get a girl.  The movie ends with Zuckerberg sending a friend request to Erica Albright.  He then hits refresh, refresh, and refresh as the movie ends with some factoids about the real life characters written over Zuckerberg as he continues to refresh.  A boy trying to get a girl.