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Thus far in 2010 I have seen two really great movies and The Social Network is one of them.
David Fincher ( FightClub,Se7en,Zodiac) brings us a movie that speaks to our time but does not succumb to long didactic sermons about the phenomenon that Zuckerberg recreated ( or ‘’stole’’) that is facebook.
The film is very quirky, funny, touching and insightful all at once - now how many films can you truly say still do that in the age of transformers 3 and bad boys 2?
The pace is pitched at just the right level that one can follow both the linear story of how the site came about and the aftermath of the lawsuits without getting lost or confused. The two stories feed well into each other and one forgets you're actually watching a mini court drama - well almost.
One of the great things about the social network is its casting, from Jesse Eisenberg as the nerdy Mark Zuckerberg (co- founder of facebook, something I didn’t know) to the tragic/sorrowful Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, who is Mark's one and only true friend who gets a very raw deal, to Max Hammer who does a great job playing the Winklevoss brothers with great comedic touches.
The performances are on point and the script is littered with so many quirky moments coming from all these characters, which are executed so well, that it almost feels as if all these guys were born to play these characters.
Every character has its quirk, every character has their hang-ups and admirable traits - this is not good guy vs bad guy territory, this is about what motivates us as people to do what we do (business or personal life) especially in our times.
For some it’s money, some it’s getting laid, some it’s finding validation whilst for others it's trying to get back at the one who got away.
Then there’s JT aka Justin Timberlake who does his own version of the smooth devil in a dark suite role as Sean Parker, the man who created napster and caused all the havoc. The script crackles and the performers deliver.
Fincher does a good job of putting the story in the front and centre and not the mechanism of how it’s made. Which makes it very different to the other great movie I’ve seen this year: Inception.
The Social Network does not do any showy shots nor tricky angles or play with special effects to bowl over the audience but it’s good old story telling with a dash of intercutting two timelines that keeps the focus
I guess one of the things I found profound about the movie is how little, as a user of facebook, I know of the genesis of this contraption. The other is how much pain it's caused those who made it.
Yet I liked how the film affirms one of the greatest myths of all great movies that is ... all great films are eventually about a guy who likes a girl and everything can be all be brought back to that point.
Do yourself a favour and check this movie out - it won’t change your life but it will entertain you and make you say mmmmmmhhhh all at the same time. nice.
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