DVDpendence . videophile
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
With Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Justin Timberlake, Bryan Barter, Rooney Mara
Written by Aaron Sorkin (based on the book by Ben Mezrich)
Directed by David Fincher
Who would've thought that an on-line social connection site would become the most used internet application worth billions, and end up the subject of a book and successful & acclaimed movie with Golden Globe and Oscar wins?
Based on the book by Ben Bezrich, Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-winning adaptation zooms in on the creation of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and his college fiends, its boom into popularity from a campus-based social application, to a global phenomenon, resulting in extreme legal and friendship repercussions left in its wake. This movie has many additional levels - rags to riches; losing the girl; beating the system; “us” and “them”: the battle between jocks and nerds (but steering an extremely wide berth around any hints of the classic teen comedy route).
The viewer remains engaged with the events of how the people involved developed Facebook, and how the disintegrated friendships, business decisions and rival claims dragged the key players into law suits kicking into the serious $ figure territory. Eisenberg may very well be doing his usual schpiel, but that is what works so well in his portrayal as Zuckerberg (and got him an Oscar nomination – not bad for the co-lead of Zombieland!).
The subtle soundtrack is by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor with Atticus Ross, and got them a Golden Globe.
This is not a direct historical document of all the ins and outs of how this empire was built, with a lot of poetic license instilled for more dramatic effect, which on the one hand is understandable to keep the audience engaged, but then seems unfair to those whose lives are now judged by millions on how they perceived them in a movie based around a time period in their lives...
The double disc edition features loads of very incisive bonus elements, from the feature length making-of documentary covering all the aspects of making this movie, from the shoot across several cities and the characters, technical illustrations like how the same actor played twins, the soundtrack and much more. Two commentary tracks include one from director Fincher, and one with writer Sorkin and key cast members.
PS. Recently (April 2011) the Winkelvoss brothers who claimed Zuckerberg stole the Facebook idea from them were granted something in the range of $65 million to stop their constant law suits.
6 / B
- Paul Blom
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