Grade: A+
Aside from the computers, the slang, the setting and the overall idea for Facebook itself, David Fincher’s “The Social Network” is constructed in such a way that it becomes the equivalent of a modern-day Greek epic, built upon the themes of betrayal, lust, jealousy, greed and pride that so governed the Homeric heroes of yore, only with less muscle and more program language.
If you don’t know the story by now, here’s your primer: In the fall of 2003 at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook with a group of friends, and along the way to becoming the world’s youngest billionaire, may or may not have alienated each and every person who ever helped him get to the top.
That’s all more or less true.
While over the next few weeks debate will rage over whether the film is true or not, about whether Zuckerberg is as crazy as he seems in the film, I’m here to tell you that none of that matters. “The Social Network” is so good that the characters may as well be real, whether or not they actually are being a moot point within seconds of the film’s opening.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg, the film’s Achilles, a hero with bravado matched only by his brainpower, though Zuckerberg is not so much leader as he is more hacker antihero.
Andrew Garfield is Eduardo Saverin, the story’s Hector, Zuckerberg’s one true friend who only seeks the companionship and elitism that come from being amongst Harvard’s “final clubs,” a desire that leaves Zuckerberg jealous and with contempt for Eduardo that leads to their ultimate falling out.
Armie Hammer plays both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twins of the crew rowing, square-jawed, WASP-y, prep-school stereotype that become the Agamemnon-esque antithesis to Zuckerberg’s very being.
Justin Timberlake, in a surprisingly strong turn, acts as Zuckerberg’s Oracle of Delphi Sean Parker, the man who invented Napster and the man who comes to whisper promises of fame and fortune into Zuckerberg’s very impressionable ego.
And then there’s Erica Albright, played by Rooney Mara, in one of the most memorable seven-and-a-half minutes of dialogue almost any actress has had the fortune of being a part of.
She’s not the Helen of Troy the boys are fighting over, but it’s her breakup with Zuckerberg at the film’s outset that acts as the catalyst that launches the social-media revolution that soon follows.
The Helen of “The Social Network” is Facebook itself. The themes of “The Iliad” run deep through the veins of the film, as each group of warriors, be it Zuckerberg and Saverin or, as Zuckerberg so kindly refers to Cameron and Tyler at one point, the Winkelvi, each seeks the power that will come with conquering the other in pursuit of the ultimate social network.
Frankly, as many a critic has said before, they could be in pursuit of a rare baseball card, and with a script as solid as Sorkin’s and direction as stellar as Fincher’s, it would nary change the film a bit.
Sorkin’s dialogue reads more like Shakespeare than Homeric poetry, with barbs thrust back and forth between the characters like daggers between warriors. Eisenberg has some of the film’s best lines, at one point in the middle of the film, amidst a court deposition as to the legitimacy of his Facebook’s intellectual property rights, laying into an attorney with the venom and power of Hamlet or Iago.
The combined performances comprise the cast of the year, led in full by Jesse Eisenberg’s seething, scary and smart beyond all reason turn as Zuckerberg. Eisenberg plays Mark with such a combination of ego and longing that you don’t know whether to feel for him or hate him for everything he does.
Garfield is as close as a hero as this film gets in Eduardo, the one person who cared about sticking by Zuckerberg before the war for Facebook took hold of their lives. The fact that Armie Hammer didn’t get the role of Captain America is astounding, quite frankly, because he works perfectly as the antithesis to Eisenberg’s frail and meek Zuckerberg.
The film itself is buoyed with its own Greek chorus composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, in a score that works well beyond the confines of the film itself.
With an astounding mix of electronica and eerie, under-your-skin synthesizers and string work, Reznor and Ross underscore and unnerve every scene with the power of their composition in a way most composers only dream of accomplishing. See my extended
review here.
None of this would matter if it weren’t for Fincher’s direction.
David Fincher, who’s been responsible for some of cinema’s cultural touchstones of the past 20 years in “Fight Club” and “Zodiac,” is a perfectionist in every sense of the word, and his mentality of perfection elevates “The Social Network” to unfathomably great heights.
In an interview, Fincher said he did over 90 takes for the first scene alone, bringing a standard to the proceeding that shines in every way.
I’ve never seen “Citizen Kane,” so I can’t assert whether “The Social Network” is or is not Generation’s Y “Kane.”
What I can assert is that “The Social Network” is a fantastic film in most every way, a work of art buoyed by themes that have plagued man since the beginning of literature, and held together by a director and writer who’s dichotomy has brought forth one of the great films of our time.
What did you think of “The Social Network”? Is it one of this year’s best, or an absolute mess? Let me know below!
Contact the reporter at vburnton@asu.edu
