Review: The Social Network

I have a fondness for geek characters in movies -- they're often oddly attractive underneath those glasses, and I find it attractive when they start talking about mathematical formulas or programming code or scientific theories. What can I say -- I knew my husband was the man for me when he made a joke about how he'd be happy to put Linux on my computer. Go figure.

So naturally I enjoyed watching The Social Network, although I must admit that Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is one of the few geek characters I would not want to spend any time with, or make dreamy eyes over, even if he were closer to my age. Eisenberg may bear a slight physical resemblance to a geek guy I dated in college, but the minute his character opens his mouth, it's hard not to want to give him a good smack.

The Social Network is based on the real-life birth and development of Facebook, which Zuckerberg started while at Harvard, trying to prove himself so he could get into a Final Club. The movie jumps back and forth from the main timeline of the early days of Facebook, to scenes where characters in earlier scenes are giving depositions for two Facebook-related lawsuits filed against Zuckerberg.

The film quickly establishes that Mark Zuckerberg is really an emotionally vulnerable guy deep down there under his expressionless demeanor and the icy retorts he flings at his girlfriend and other people close to him. And that's pretty much the focus of this story: Poor little Mark starts a phenomenal social networking site where everyone friends everyone else but he can't seem to keep any real friends of his own.

The characters are not deep, complex beings, but college-age boys divided into the good, the bad and the inscrutable. The good is Mark's best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), who helps him fund his early project The Facebook, and who serves as his conscience at times. The bad are the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer), who are right out of Animal House -- blond rich rowing crew guys who can't figure out how to keep Zuckerberg from growing a business based on an idea they fed him for their own business. The bad also includes Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), one of the Napster founders who insinuates himself into Facebook and works to boost Eduardo out of it. Zuckerberg is, of course, the inscrutable, as he transforms into the billionaire who, like Charles Foster Kane, has everything but love.

The movie had enough techie detail in it to keep me happy without confusing anyone who doesn't care for that kind of thing. I was disappointed in Middle Men because I wanted to know how the application worked and how it was applied and that kind of thing, at least on a high level I could understand. The Social Network doesn't show us actual code, but we do get to watch the characters discovering what they wanted to add to Facebook and how it evolved and what worked and what didn't.

On the other hand, The Social Network has an almost Luddite viewpoint on Facebook and social media. We don't really get to see the actual effect of what Zuckerberg has created. A montage shows us how his early website Facemash is received at Harvard, but Facebook's ever-widening influence is pretty much ignored. Admittedly, we already know this from real life. But The Social Network portrays technology as something that promotes alienation and solitude -- characters are wired in and can't communicate, and the characters can't seem to connect with anyone in a functional way.

The high-tech industry is also portrayed solely as a man's world, where women's only job is to act like bitches so thoroughly that they inspire the men to create and innovate. Several of the lawyers are women, but we never see a female involved in coding or programming. On the other hand, for all I know, that may be true to the facts behind Facebook -- there are certainly plenty of high-tech development teams that are all-male. The Final Clubs that Zuckerberg wants to join are all-male, and that extends to the "club" of techies he founds himself. It's all very Peter Pan at times ... or maybe even a little Fight Club, an earlier film from The Social Network's director, David Fincher.

Eisenberg is excellent as Zuckerberg -- I don't mean that he portrays the real-life Zuckerberg perfectly, because I have no idea of what the Facebook founder is like. He delivers Aaron Sorkin's scathing lines perfectly. However, he is able to add nuance and detail to the Poor Little Rich Boy that is the focus of the film. Andrew Garfield adds needed emotion and empathy as Eduardo Saverin. Justin Timberlake comes off as a pale imitation of Neil Patrick Harris ... I wanted him to speed away in someone else's stolen car and not come back until the end of the movie.

The Social Network is fun to watch if you think of it as fictional -- a tale of two young men who almost stumble across something that turns out to be huge and world-changing, and how one of them finds a way to realize its full potential at the expense of his friendship. Fans of Aaron Sorkin will love the dialogue. And nerds may enjoy watching these nerds have their revenge. But don't expect a story about actual social networking ... for that, you may want to try Catfish or the anime film that recently played Fantastic Fest, Summer Wars.