The internet phenomenon starts here
THE PLOT
This is the real-life story of the beginnings of the social networking giant Facebook. Harvard freshman Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is the socially maladjusted hacker-cum-tech-wizard responsible for the biggest social networking website in the world to date. He seemingly doesn’t see the irony of his obsession having come from someone who is, or should be, a loner.
Zuckerberg is an ambitious and status driven man who started out by bad-mouthing his ex-girlfriend on a blog following their break-up (which he never saw coming) and continued from there to build website facemash that very same night, as some way to get back at all Harvard women. Two hours, 22,000 hits and one crashed university server later and Zuckerberg had become legend, if not public enemy number one for the collective Harvard sorority.
Whilst landing him in hot water with the university administration, this stunt raises Mark’s profile and he’s approached by senior and well connected students Divya Narendra and identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (later to compete for the USA in the men's pair rowing event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics). This trio ask Zuckerberg to join a project to create a Harvard Social Network and perhaps restore his reputaion. Zuckerberg agrees and strings them along for weeks before finally, along with his only friend and CFO Eduardo Saverin (soon to be Spider-Man, Andrew Garfiled) he launches his own site, thefacebook.com. And so begins the rise of Facebook; and the lawsuits.
THE REVIEW
It is likely that the audience will identify with the characters as we all know the ‘type’ from countless films and novels, give or take, and almost to a man all the lead characters are awful but perfectly acted. The most likeable of the lead protagonists is Garfield’s loyal friend Saverin and therefore the most likely candidate for empathy, but only barely. Justin Timberlake features as real-life Napster founder and eventual Facebook president, Sean Parker, in an acting turn that is convincingly arrogant and suave. I was also surprised to find, as the credits rolled, that the Winklevoss twins were both played by Armie Hammer utilising some convincing film and editing trickery.
Finally, Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg was… well… hard to peg. Good, undoubtedly, but his character had all the removed-from-society feel of Johnny Depp’s Scissorhands but without the quirky and drowning in arrogance. Such an unusual and perhaps misunderstood person was always going to be a hard central character to portray. The problem as I see it is that being such an odd character it’s hard to know how accurate this portrayal really is. But this is a relatively minor issue, for me at least.
This film has performed very well Stateside and may well do the same over the pond, but I can’t help wonder if that’s because, like Facebook itself, an element of voyeurism exists for the 500 million strong Facebook users, of which I am one. Is this possible voyeurism the real reason for the film’s success or is it the host of what I believe to be legitimate cinematic reasons; these reasons being great cinematography, good editing, strong script and excellent acting.
As a film lover I hope this film does well because of it’s many positive attributes not because of the subject matter (or Justin Timberlake’s bare chest!), but I suspect this will not be the case. I just hope that, having viewed the film, the audience can appreciate what is good here.
THE VERDICT
An informative and entertaining look at the origins of an internet phenomenon and it’s creators. Great performances all round and well worth a view. As simple as that. Don’t let the subject matter put you off, if you like film you’ll appreciate this.
TCZuckerberg is an ambitious and status driven man who started out by bad-mouthing his ex-girlfriend on a blog following their break-up (which he never saw coming) and continued from there to build website facemash that very same night, as some way to get back at all Harvard women. Two hours, 22,000 hits and one crashed university server later and Zuckerberg had become legend, if not public enemy number one for the collective Harvard sorority.
Whilst landing him in hot water with the university administration, this stunt raises Mark’s profile and he’s approached by senior and well connected students Divya Narendra and identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (later to compete for the USA in the men's pair rowing event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics). This trio ask Zuckerberg to join a project to create a Harvard Social Network and perhaps restore his reputaion. Zuckerberg agrees and strings them along for weeks before finally, along with his only friend and CFO Eduardo Saverin (soon to be Spider-Man, Andrew Garfiled) he launches his own site, thefacebook.com. And so begins the rise of Facebook; and the lawsuits.
THE REVIEW
It is likely that the audience will identify with the characters as we all know the ‘type’ from countless films and novels, give or take, and almost to a man all the lead characters are awful but perfectly acted. The most likeable of the lead protagonists is Garfield’s loyal friend Saverin and therefore the most likely candidate for empathy, but only barely. Justin Timberlake features as real-life Napster founder and eventual Facebook president, Sean Parker, in an acting turn that is convincingly arrogant and suave. I was also surprised to find, as the credits rolled, that the Winklevoss twins were both played by Armie Hammer utilising some convincing film and editing trickery.
Finally, Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg was… well… hard to peg. Good, undoubtedly, but his character had all the removed-from-society feel of Johnny Depp’s Scissorhands but without the quirky and drowning in arrogance. Such an unusual and perhaps misunderstood person was always going to be a hard central character to portray. The problem as I see it is that being such an odd character it’s hard to know how accurate this portrayal really is. But this is a relatively minor issue, for me at least.
This film has performed very well Stateside and may well do the same over the pond, but I can’t help wonder if that’s because, like Facebook itself, an element of voyeurism exists for the 500 million strong Facebook users, of which I am one. Is this possible voyeurism the real reason for the film’s success or is it the host of what I believe to be legitimate cinematic reasons; these reasons being great cinematography, good editing, strong script and excellent acting.
As a film lover I hope this film does well because of it’s many positive attributes not because of the subject matter (or Justin Timberlake’s bare chest!), but I suspect this will not be the case. I just hope that, having viewed the film, the audience can appreciate what is good here.
THE VERDICT
An informative and entertaining look at the origins of an internet phenomenon and it’s creators. Great performances all round and well worth a view. As simple as that. Don’t let the subject matter put you off, if you like film you’ll appreciate this.
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