The Social Network Review

Finally! A review that isn't for Fringe! It's been a really busy month or so for me lately, with work and class and what not, and I haven't gotten the chance to see many movies in theaters or play new games, but I got the chance this weekend, and saw David Fincher's latest film, The Social Network, based on the creation of Facebook. Amusingly enough, I watched Fincher's first film, Alien 3, for the first time the day before seeing this film, and the contrast was nice.

As many many of you know by now, The Social Network tells the story of Facebook's creation and it's subsequent lawsuits as based on the book, The Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich; and now say... interviewing the actual participants of the on-screen events. Having said that however, I believe scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin does a wonderful job of representing the three clashing points of view (Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and the Winklevoss twins) equally, and ultimately leaving the final decision of right and wrong up to the viewer, regardless of how the actual events panned out.

One of the things that impressed me the most was the cast, not just because they're all younger actors and seemed to handle Sorkin's incredibly wordy script with ease (Jessie Eisenberg was especially spectacular in this sense), but also the physical resemblance to the people they portrayed. Of course I didn't realize this until after the fact, but I was shocked how similar everyone looked to their real life counterparts, except for Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (founder of Napster), who surprised me with his ability to actually act, but really wasn't pulling off the nefariousness he was trying for. Also great though, was Armie Hammer, who played both Winklevoss twins and really pulled a Sam Rockwell by portraying equal but different characters on screen at once, and was one of the more fun performances to watch in the film.

Characters and script aside though, the part I loved about the film the most was the score, which I had no idea would be this good. In a somewhat Tron: Legacy fashion, an orchestra was not used for The Social Network's score, instead Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor, did the score and it just blew me away because I wasn't expect it at all. The moody electronic pieces seemed out of place at first, but through the length and tone of the film it just works so damn well. Seriously, listen to this track, and tell me that Daft Punk shouldn't be worried for best film score of 2010.

To say I went to see this film reluctantly would be a lie, I had a mild interest to see it, but it wasn't on my "must see" list; so, I'm kind of surprised at how much I liked the film (awesome score aside). I've known David Fincher to make some decent films, particularly Seven and Fight Club (and don't hate, but I liked Alien 3 more than James Cameron's Aliens); but I've also known him to make some crap: Panic Room and Benjamin Button, I'm looking at you. So going into this I had no idea what to expect, but the combination of Fincher's directing, Sorkin's script, great performances by the cast, and Trent Reznor's awesome score really made this one of my more favorite films of the year, and if you haven't seen it, go do it, I don't care how loyal you are to Friendster.

Overall Score: 9/10