The Social Network

The Social Network was released in October 2010 and tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. The drama film was based on the nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and details the scandals, law suits and complications that Zuckerberg faced after launching his social networking website.

Director David Fincher split the film into three storylines. The first being the storyline of how Zuckerberg created Facebook and the second and third being the two law suits that he was involved in. Whilst the constant switching between them is at first a little confusing, you soon pick it up. The movie somewhat lacked an exciting overall plotline. The beginning was boring, but the storyline soon develops. The dynamics of the character relationships start to pick and you find yourself wanting to know how it will play out.

One of the best parts about this move was the casting, with Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go) as Eduardo Saverin. Justin Timberlake also appears as Napster founder, Sean Parker, giving a surprisingly good performance and Disney star Brenda Song joins the cast as Saverin’s girlfriend, though her character seems to have no real point in the story. Fincher has also done a fantastic job with character development. The audience constantly changes which character’s side they are on right up until the end.

It really doesn’t matter whether you love or hate Facebook. Whilst some parts are clearly exaggerated or over dramatised for the Hollywood screen, it still provides an interesting story behind Facebook that many are probably not aware of.

You will probably enjoy this film more if you have an interest in the subject, a good attention span or at least an infatuation with one of the main actors. Despite some of its faults, The Social Network is a great movie. It may not appeal to everyone, but I would definitely recommend giving it a go before you write it off completely.

The Social Network is set to be released on DVD in the US on January 11.