1 person liked, but with Zuckerberg reservations

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I was both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by "The Social Network." On one hand, this is a film about a young, arrogant, socially inept billionaire who made his money by inventing the most famous social interactive website ever. On the other, this is a film about hubris, about how a business is created and how the creator cheats his partners. Or does he? Or is the 21st century business model about how you cheat your partners and that we all have to get used to it? Or is Mark someone who just can't socially interact with anyone?

Mark Zuckerberg is a Harvard whiz with computers and writing programming codes - his fingers do all the work and he sits there content. He suffers a breakup with his girlfriend, Erica Albright (a stunning Rooney Mara) and this creates an idea. Zuckerberg manages to interweave through a series of complex codes a communication tool (Facemash) where fellow students can compare female students to farm animals, and send it to one group of people after another. This results in thousands of hits. All this is meant in jest, though it can be construed as a form of bullying and defamation of character. Zuckerberg gets the attention of two Harvard athletes, the Winklevosses (amazingly acted by the same actor, Armie Hammer)who want him to create a social network site just for Harvard students. Instead Mark uses the idea to be a form of inclusivity, not exclusivity. How about a social interactive site for the whole wide world? Before you know it, Mark's close friend and partner, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and Napster founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), create a site that draws a million people and counting. Some relationships are formed (Mark and company get groupies), and others are destroyed due to lawsuits about who had more input in the creation of facebook.

My problem with "The Social Network" is that I was not engaged by Mark Zuckerberg at all - he remains a nerdy genius who is nothing more than a cipher. Whatever pleasure he gets from what he creates is muted - money apparently means nothing to him and creativity merely draws a level of anxiety. But does anything mean anything to Zuckerberg? Writer Aaron Sorkin never quite answers that question. When Eduardo understands his place in a gripping scene, we understand his torment but we can't figure out Zuckerberg.

Adapted from Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires," "The Social Network" is stupendously directed by David Fincher, a director who has taken more noble risks than any Hollywood director in years. The uniformly excellent cast (including a very spry Timberlake) and shrewdly written script by Aaron Sorkin capture the behind-the-scenes and backroom intrigue beautifully. But I sense an aloofness that leads nowhere in the film, and that is partially because Zuckerberg is a most uninteresting, unresponsive young genius played by one of the best young actors who can convey anything except disinterest, Jesse Eisenberg. I'd defriend Mark Zuckerberg in a second.