According to director David Fincher, the opening scene of “The Social Network” took an astonishing 99 takes and two days of filming. And it’s very easy to see why. With a 166-page script to get through, Fincher needed to keep the dialogue and scenes moving and with this scene, featuring the most rapid fire tete-a-tete this side of “His Girl Friday” not only does it quickly establish the competitive, hierarchical and exclusive world of Harvard, it sets the pace for the rest of the film. And you better be ready, because from the first second, “The Social Network” moves; this is the quickest two hours you will ever spend in a movie theater.
The film is essentially told in flashbacks as Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) gives testimony at two separate depositions shortly after Facebook crosses the 1 million user mark in its exciting, early days. We bounce back to Harvard in the fall of 2003 and as the aforementioned scene lays out, Zuckerberg is eager to climb the ranks of the hallowed, prestigious clubs at Harvard but before that, he must deal with healing the wound left following the breakup with his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). So, he does what any young, confident and vindictive (personality traits that seem to define his every impulse) geek would do: he blogs about it. After a couple more Becks and prodded by an idea from his roommate, he has an idea to build a crude Hot Or Not-esque website so guys can rank the girls at Harvard. To do this he hacks into the databases of most of the houses at Harvard, snags the snaps of their members and builds the site. But he needs one more thing before he goes live. He quickly calls his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) a budding financial genius who recently made $300,000 over the summer by using weather to predict oil prices. Mark asks Eduardo for an algorithm to help with the ranking of the girls on his site, and after scribbling something quickly on the dorm room window, Mark plugs it in and the site goes live. Dubbed Facemash, it makes the rounds of Harvard the same night, and by 4 AM, the traffic has crashed the university’s servers.
Mark is reprimanded by Harvard, but his ability to blog, hack and build a website in one night that earns enough hits to bring the university servers to a grinding halt brings him to the attention of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and Divya Narenda (Max Minghella). The trio have an idea for a website, that could more or less be described as a simplified version of what we would come to know as Facebook, but exclusive to those only with an @harvard.edu address. Mark doesn’t seem too taken with the idea, but is more stricken by their monied backgrounds and access to clubs and agrees to do the job. Fast forward a few months and Mark is deep at work on something called Facebook that bears a striking similarity to the project conceived by Cameron, Tyler and Divya. Mark makes Eduardo his co-founder and gives him a CFO gig and in return receives initial funding for servers. With a few more clicks the site goes live and then, all hell breaks loose. At first confined to Harvard, Mark and Eduardo quickly expand access to surrounding schools and eventually to Stanford where Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) sees it and begins to take a keen interest. If the first half of the film is about the launch of the site, the second half is about the disintegration of a friendship and the coming of age of young A-type geniuses whose common sense is blunted by their own energy and ambition. It isn’t long before Eduardo’s level-headedness and tentativeness about all aspects of the site are viewed as liabilities while Mark’s lust for status and recognition blinds him to his own good judgement.
Fincher’s energy behind the camera is breathtaking. We tried to read the unwieldy script a while ago and kind of gave up on it, but here, Fincher and the cast energize Aaron Sorkin’s script into a slick, lean and wickedly compelling narrative. There is not one moment in the film where someone isn’t talking, where a mouse isn’t being clicked or another angle to the story being opened up. None of it would matter if the actors couldn’t keep up, but everyone is in top form here. Jesse Eisenberg gives a career changing performance. Previously known for mastering intelligent if awkward teenage characters, here he pours that awkwardness into a mold that casts Mark Zuckerberg as outcast and/or self-imposed exile. If he’s book smart, he’s street stupid (or simply uninterested). In a strange irony, for all his interest in reaching upper class echelons, he has no time for proper social mores (he spends much of the time wearing ragged sweats and open toed sandals). He speaks with a machine gun fire as if he’s already five ideas ahead of what he’s actually saying, and as his navel gazing focus keeps personal relationships from ever going deeper than a surface level. So it’s no surprise then he’s allured by Sean Parker, who is nothing but surface level. Sean wears his bad personal and business decisions almost as a badge of honor because, no matter what, he’s the guy who took down the music industry and that still carries tremendous currency. And Timberlake falls into this role with ease, basically playing a much smarmier version of himself; a man with all the ins but unable to control his baser impulses. Both men seek a legitimacy in each other with Mark seeking social status and Sean looking to regain his tarnished reputation in Silicon Valley. And thus Eduardo Saverin, whose sense of pragmatism has no place in the fast and loose world of web startup, finds his relationship with Mark being torn apart and it’s the stuff of tragedy. Andrew Garfield has been left out of the early praise but his performance here is every bit as good as Eisenberg’s, if completely opposite. Garfield wonderfully transmits the naïveté that cripples his ability to keep up with Facebook by making Eduardo seeming to always be chasing Mark, constantly a couple steps behind. It’s a nuanced and less showy turn but it’s strong and ultimately moving stuff.
But not everything is perfect in “The Social Network.” For all of the film’s period detail, tightly packed story and effortless rhythm, its also a fairly one-note movie. There is no big overarching theme and despite some reviews, it’s not really a critique or insight on contemporary online culture. This is really a portrait of how one massive website came together as fast as it did, and the no holds or feelings barred approach that made it happen. As Marilyn Delpy (Rashida Jones) who is part of Mark’s legal team says to the young impressario, “You’re not an asshole. You’re just trying to be one.” Mark’s achievement with Facebook is staggering, but essentially, he’s kind of a jerk from the first frame right to the end. Even as the film closes, with a scene that we won’t spoil here, that shows Mark that perhaps he’s learned something and has matured, the feeling is not quite earned. And that’s not to mention a couple of plot threads that in the zip and vigor of the storytelling, seemed to get lost, particularly, Eduardo’s relationship with Christy (Brenda Song) an early groupie turned jealous girlfriend that seems dropped in and out of the film with little rhyme or reason. To be sure, these are minor problems, but it will be interesting to see how the film holds up on further viewings. Will the wildfire pacing and dazzling wordplay still seem fresh and impress or will the film’s tiny flaws become more apparent?
However, that’s a question best left for later because right now, the film lives up to its excitement. It’s impeccably shot — Fincher’s color design has never been stronger, from the musted whiskey tones of Harvard, to the blinding whites and primary colors of California — and the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is subtle but effectively bristling and propulsive. “The Social Network” is grand entertainment; a thriller built inconceivably on the intricacies of computer code, copyright and the thin line between idea and inspiration. Fincher’s film is a profile of today’s entrepreneur, one where the values hubris, arrogance and brilliance are held in esteem first, and sometimes, in that very order. [A-] –Kevin Jagernauth