Needless to say, no film can live up to the hype of the general public. Objectively, however, I did enjoy a lot of The Social Network. A retelling of the development of Facebook via the two lawsuits of creator, Mark Zuckerberg, the film tracks the highs and lows of Zuckerberg's creation, resulting in his monolithic fortune, and the relationships he sacrificed to get it.
My feelings on this film are conflicted; my undying love and potential stalking of writer Aaron Sorkin get in the way of criticizing the screenplay at all. Sorkin's particular heightened style of writing seemed perfectly suitable for this kind of film. Characters like Zuckerberg, socially awkward and incredibly intelligent, only accentuate Sorkin's incredible, fluid dialogue. While there were too many moments of characters looking longingly out windows only to be pulled back to reality by someone continuously calling their name, on the whole the script seemed quite strong. Moments of incredibly well timed comedy coupled with some very Sorkin monologues of revelation and denunciation, the cast seemed well equipped in this very particular style of script.
My one criticism of the plot, however, is quite major. On several occasions the film seemed to highlight moments that were completely irrelevant. During the opening credits, we are treated to a lengthy montage of Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) running through his college. Similar attention is lathered onto a regatta scene that simply leads into a conversation back to facebook. While I can understand the juxtaposition between the Adonis-like Winklevoss twins (both played by the stunningly attractive Armie Hammer) and Zuckerberg as old-world/new-world, I didn't need to see them losing a regatta to do so.
I'm not sure if blame should fall on Sorkin's screenplay or Director David Fincher, however my instincts (and blood oath to the church of Sorkin) point to the latter. Similarly, I questioned the choice of color filters used throughout, as, especially in the beginning of the film, there was a propensity towards using greenish-grey filters, commonly associated with dystopian/sci-fi films like The Matrix. While there were computers present in The Social Network, the color scheme almost made it seem like something extraordinary or action-packed was about to happen.
It wasn't.
As with the long shots of regattas and running, Fincher placed an underwhelming amount of energy into scenes like the 1 millionth facebook user or the creation of the site. While the regatta was paired with an epic score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' re-do of In the Hall of the Mountain King) and an enema of enthused, wealthy British men, the 1 millionth user was greeted with lazy applause from Justin Timberlake and some computer generated fireworks.
All-in-all, I feel like it was a really nothing story, I didn't know if it was supposed to be redemption or condemnation of the entire process, nor do I know if the film really knew what it wanted to be - I feel like Fincher was not content simply making 'the facebook movie' and therefore attempted to lather it in techniques and artifice that just seemed to conflict with Sorkin's style of writing.
While enjoyable enough, I'm obviously in the minority thinking the film left more to be desired, but that isn't to say I didn't think it was quite enjoyable. I'd say it's a 6.5, pending friendship approval.
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