The Social Network

I am going to start with saying that this is an excellent film. For those who haven't heard of this movie, it's based on the founding of the social networking site Facebook and the complicated and long-winded lawsuits that followed. 

"You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

The main thing that interested me about this film wasn't necessarily the acting (not saying that it wasn't good) or the way in which it was filmed, but the character Mark Zuckerberg. In this film he's portrayed as a hard-working, sometimes over-confident nerd by Jesse Eisenberg, who in my opinion is a very talented young actor. The founding of Facebook is simply inspirational. To start a small website within the campus of Harvard in order to become a member of the incredibly selective clubs, and then develop it into a multi-billion dollar business with an increasing 500 million members is simply incredible. Everyone uses Facebook, yet it is such a simple idea developed with days and days of coding the site. Although the film is obviously different from reality. It focuses a lot on Mark's social life but Mark himself said on Oprah that it dramatizes it, he spent the majority of his time working hard and coding Facebook. I'm not saying that the exaggerated biography of the foundation of Facebook is a bad thing at all. It gives the film excitement and a great sense of desirability to be as successful and famous, although we all know it'll never happen.

Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook is a character of which I felt sorry for. As The Social Network  shows, he gave Mark coding, gave Mark $19,000 to start thefacebook (as it was called in its early stages) and was his best friend. It's almost as if Mark in the movie, became power-mad, prepared to ditch people close to him for success. For all this help and support, Mark drops his share to 0.03%. The actor Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo and really does fit the part of 'the loyal best friend'... until he files a law suit. I really felt sympathy with the character due to his naivety and his over-trust with Mark, and in the end in the film and reality, Eduardo claimed 7% of the multi-billion dollar company and his title of co-founder.

"You know you really don't need a damn forensic team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook you'd have invented Facebook" Mark Zuckerburg

Another interesting actor is Justin Timberlake. Firstly I had no knowledge of him acting, and secondly I was surprised at how well he fitted the part. He plays Sean Parker who co-founded Napster and Plaxo and who ultimately brought Facebook to the enormity it is today. Although Justin Timberlake looks nothing like the real Sean Parker, in fact I'd say Jesse Eisenburg looks more like the computer nerd. But the pop star certainly acts well and portrays Sean as cool, careless and a 'party-animal'. I'll admit though that he is also being portrayed as camp, independent and careless. He describes Napster, not as a money-making business but as a free music site to change the music industry and to provoke the industry which ultimately leaves him broke due to the multiple lawsuits forced upon him. The film also includes his arrest for cocaine possession and shows him snorting the substance off a teenage girl at a party (another dramatization of reality).

"You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars." Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake)

 David Fincher, the director (also directed Fight Club  and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as well as Aaron Sorkin (the screenwriter) really did make use of the popularity of Facebook and turned the foundation of the 'mega-site' into a brilliant film. 

The movie and the website itself is inspirational to many website creators and with 500 million members, it is safe to say that there will be no other social networking site quite like it.