Monday, October 18, 2010

Facebook me

I'm a Facebooker, you're a Facebooker - so have you seen The Social Network yet?

It's really rather good. What could have been a rather dull story about feuding geeks if put into wrong hands, cracks with sparky dialogue and cranks up the tension. What would you expect from the writer of The West Wing?

It's an odd film to make, and even though the story only begins in 2003 it feels like ancient history. It's hard to remember a time before we were all social networking, like it or not. It's indicative of the way the world has changed, and to commit this revolution to celluloid is timely and necessary.

The Creator, Mark Zuckerberg, was clearly borderline Aspergers, a brilliant man who thought nothing of dumping on his friends and was clearly under the spell of the charismatic show-off and Napster founder Sean Parker (a brilliant and surprising turn from the strange-looking Justin Timberlake), who should never have got near the business.

I won't ruin it for you by giving any more away, but what on paper could be so dull is the most gripping and exciting story I've heard in a long time, and makes for a great film with some really superb performances. Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg is fantastic. I hear Oscars.

Now why can't I invent something that'll make me billions. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg is happy with all that money? There's only one thing he wanted, and it wasn't that.

3 comments:

Suzy Norman said...

Going tomorrow afternoon. It's films that capture an era that are the best to look back on in the future. Back to the future, the secret of my success, ferris bueller, working girl...

Unknown said...

Hello again.

I saw it on Saturday and yes I agree. Excellent story telling of a clear narrative - money, power, greed, revenge - about a subject we all use daily, well, most of us. I thought the soundtrack was excellent too, very atmospheric and menancing, but subtly so, while some of the shots of Harvard and its campus where nicely evocative.

Jon Peake said...

That reminds me, must see if the soundtrack's available cos it was really good.

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