The Social Network (2010) Director: David Fincher

The Social Network is not kind to Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg. It portrays him as a socially inept techy nerd, brilliant at writing computer code and programming but absymal in human interaction and relationships. He's also desperate to 'belong', to be in the in-crowd, jealous of friends successes, bitter and vengeful. Not great really.

The film is based on the book 'The Accidental Billionaires' by Ben Mezrich, where Eduardo Saverin (more on him later) was a consultant for this project. No Facebook staff, inc Zuckerberg, were involved with the film. Whilst characters have obviously been adapated and narrative written for an entertainment film, you can't help wondering how much of this actually rings true and I left the cinema with a sour taste in my mouth about Facebook. The guy f**ks over his friends and reacts on jealousy and spite to develop his empire. But also coming into play is Napster co-founder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) who is the real evil genius here. It is suggested that Sean uses the easily-led Mark for his own purposes, wrecking Mark's relationship with Facebook co-founder Eduardo and creating the phenomenon we know today.

Coming to your own interpretation about the 'truth' is the fun part; is Mark not the arsehole we think he is? (as one character says towards the end, he's not an asshole, he's just TOO busy trying to be one) I tend to think his portrayl is that he just doesn't know how to deal with people. Yes, he does some seriously shit things to his friends but how much of that is callous and how much of that are his 'problems' or lack of social skills, that's for you to make your mind up. He's not a likeable character whatever conclusion you come to.

And part of that is through Jesse Eisenberg's amazing portrayl of the lead character. Mixing in humour, bitterness, 'issues' and confusion, Eisenberg's Zuckerberg is a stand-out and career defining performance. Kudos must also be given to Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Mark's faithful friend who is truly f**ked over at Facebook offices in California. When they are fighting out their lawsuit, there is still a love for each other, a 'bromance', which actually made me feel quite emotional. Money makes the world go around but it's also the root of all evils and destroys people, friendships and love.

Some of the American university systems may be a bit alien for audiences not used to it and I would have liked to have seen more of an insight into Zuckerberg's zillionaire lifestyle but this is a strong, strong film which kept me glued to the screen for 2 hours.

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4/5