Directed by: David Fincher
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin
Based on: The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Rooney Mara
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Website: http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/
David Fincher is an outstanding filmmaker and The Social Network may just be the second best movie he has ever made. It's a very, very close second pretty much because no one says "I want you to hit me as hard as you can" but considering it's in the company of movies like Fight Club, Se7en, The Game and Zodiac it's not a statement I make lightly. I think it's the fact that Fincher made such a bold, provocative and emotional movie on such seemingly superficial subject matter that shows how truly gifted a storyteller he is. Turning the relatively simple story of one man and his obsession into a contemporary allegory and a soul searching look into how we interact in the 21st century.
The socially awkward Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) says all the wrong things and ends up on the wrong end of a break up, which leads him to a drunken, revenge driven coding session that begins the journey towards him becoming the worlds youngest billionaire. That night in the fall of 2003 he created a site that allowed people to rate the female students against each other using their looks, the only problem being it wasn't entirely legal and it crashed the Harvard network. Ooops. What it also did was earn him a certain amount of notoriety on campus which garnered him the attention of the Winklevoss twins who enlist Zuckerberg to help them create an exclusive social networking site for Harvard students they call 'Harvard Connection'. He agrees to help them but quickly realizes that the idea could be so much bigger and puts aside his work on their project to begin work on his own site, 'The Facebook'. He forms a partnership with his best friend Eduardo Saverin, who becomes the financial backer and also the CFO. Once launched Facebook quickly takes the campus by storm eventually leading to the inevitable expansion. Once Facebook reaches Stanford University it catches the eye of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the creator of Napster. Being someone who Mark already looks up to it's easy for Parker to worm his way into the picture and slowly begin to push Saverin out of it, while at the same time helping to make Facebook what it is today. The whole story is told in flashbacks and alternates between the meteoric rise of Facebook and the legal issues Zuckerberg is having with the Winklevoss twins and Saverin. Who both feel they deserve some of the multi-billion dollar empire, the latter justifiably so, the former not so much.
Even just typing out a synopsis makes me wonder why I find this movie as interesting and engaging as I did because let's face it on paper it all seems pretty uninteresting. It doesn't take me long to remember why though, even a story that sounds so bland, when it's told properly, can still be worth your time. That's what it comes down to, this is an exceptionally well made flick, from the directing to the performances to the music. You'd have to be crazy not to mention the score created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Rose, it is such a perfect fit for Fincher's style it just elevates the whole thing to that next level. This is a dark and disturbing look at what greed and obsession can do to people and it's not pretty.
The casting here is near perfect, Jesse Eisenberg, seemingly cast against type does an amazing job playing the lead. Giving us a stark look into the mind of the young computer genius, demons and all. Andrew Garfield does great as the suffering best friend and shows great emotional depth when things take a turn for the worse. Rounding out the main performances is Justin Timberlake playing the cocky, brash and over the top Parker was hardly a stretch for him and is one of the better casting decisions I have seen in his movie career so far. With an excellent supporting cast around them these three young actors are really allowed to shine through and put that human edge on Fincher's dark vision. Helped in no small part by Aaron Sorkin's excellent screenplay, with his tight, witty and natural dialogue, The Social Network really just is one of those perfect storm movies where everything just comes together.
Audio/Video:
I can't really have any complaints about Sony's 1080p transfer here. The whole movie was digitally shot in darker tones ad while there isn't really much color to speak of until we get a look at the facebook offices late in the movie with it's familiar blue theme. The blacks are deep and rich and pop off the screen especially in the evening shots. I don't think the lack of vibrant colors hurts much here nor is it really the fault of the transfer, it's more to do with Fincher's style than anything else. As a whole the visual side is stunning, with only some slight banding holding it back from being pretty much perfect. On the audio side I already mentioned the excellent score and the rest of the audio track doesn't disappoint in the slightest. The only, very minor, flaw is that the background noise in a couple of scenes goes over the actual dialogue but it's not really a problem. Other than this it's near audio perfection, providing rich ambiance , deep bass and sucking you into movie just as much as Fincher's atmosphere or Sorkin's dialogue.
Special Features:
The special features here are spread across both discs, there isn't all that much there but it's by no means bad. There are a pair of audio commentaries the first with Director David Fincher and the second with Aaron Sorkin and the cast, Including Eisenberg, Garfield and Timberlake. The second disc holds a four part documentary entitled "How did they ever make a movie of Facebook?" which is a fair question and this documentary goes a long way to trying to answer that. Made up of cast and crew interviews along with behind the scenes clips taking the viewer deeper into the movie, it's certainly interesting and definitely worth a watch. The rest of the features are made up of discussions regarding the visuals, the post and the score. Rounded out by a couple of interesting features, the first of which offers a comparison between a scrapped version of the audio for the Henley Regatta sequence and the version that made it into the final cut. The second see's Trent Reznor introducing one of the unique instruments used to make the films score. Overall It's a nice package which is much more of an accompaniment to the movie rather than something that tries to standalone, but with such a great movie thats not a bad thing at all.
I can't recommend this movie enough, the seemingly ordinary story is enhanced in every single way by having a visionary director, a gifted screen writer, a talented cast and an amazing atmospheric score. All of that comes together to make what is surely to become an classic of American cinema. Although this is one of the first BD releases of 2011 I'd put money on it also being one of the best come year end. Any movie fan owes it to themselves to check out The Social Network.
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