Facts Don't Matter When You Have Drama: The Social Network

By Lizzi

When I first heard about The Social Network, I'm pretty sure my reaction was the same as the majority of people: "They're making a movie about Facebook?!?!" It all seemed ridiculous. And then as the cast began to roll in and people like Justin Timberlake signed on, it seemed even more ridiculous. And the trailers...the cheesy, over the top, trailers. I decided I would not see this movie. There was no way that I would be seeing this movie.

Then the the reviews started rolling in and everyone liked it. People even started saying that this could be a contender for the Academy Awards and that Justin Timberlake did a fantastic job. Also, for me personally, I was interested in the performance by Andrew Garfield, who was completely outstanding in the film Boy A. And it is true that David Fincher has a great filmography, directing such films as Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac. So, eventually, I decided to give it a chance.

I was happily surprised. The movie, while not perfect, is quite well done. Describing the plot of the film seems rather unnecessary considering how much people already know about the story of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). So, in sum, girl breaks up with boy; boy tries to get noticed; boy gets idea for network from other boys (and expands on it); boy takes idea to rich friend to get money; boy and rich friend create Facebook; drama happens and boy gets sued by other boys and rich friend. The movie itself is told kind of through the lawsuits. We continue to bounce between how Facebook came to be and the lawsuits, whether it's from the Winklevosses (both played by Armie Hammer) or the one brought by Zuckerberg's best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Garfield). This is somewhat confusing at the beginning, because there isn't really an explanation of what is going on, but once the movie is really rolling, it is easy to follow the action and the lawsuits allow us to fill in the blanks to any action left out of the movie. Aaron Sorkin has written a good script and the actors have done it justice.

The one question I have about the film is, how true is this story? The movie paints the picture of Zuckerberg being a total jerk and Saverin being the nicest guy ever. As I am not one to just believe anything I see, hear, or read (especially when it seems so one-sided), I decided to do a little research. The Social Network is a movie based on the book The Accidental Billionaires written by Ben Mezrich. If the name sounds familiar, it is because he is the author of Bringing Down the House, another book that was marketed as non-fiction, but was proven to have a lot of fictional pieces added. In the same way, Mezrich's book about Facebook and Zuckerberg seems to have been far more fictitious than non-fiction. Mezrich's only real source of information seemed to be Saverin, which leaves a lot of holes in the story and the question of who really is in the right. (For more reading about the book, there is a good article about it in the New York Times)

All in all, The Social Network is a great film, but one to be taken with a grain of salt. Do not watch believing you are watching a recreation of the events surrounding Facebook. Take it as it is: A good film that is probably mostly fiction.