The Social Network: A Story of Clashing Egos

Gage: Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?

Mark Zuckerberg: [stares out the window] No.

Gage: Do you think I deserve it?

Mark Zuckerberg: [looks at Gage] What?

Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?

Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.

Jesse Eisenberg's outstanding performance as Mark Zuckerberg

The Social Network, directed by David Fincher, is about the origins of Facebook and the personal and legal complications Mark Zuckerberg went through. Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, based the film on Ben Mezrich’s book: The Accidental Billionaires. Sorkin’s and Fincher’s collaboration offers an exhilarating, thought-provoking, strangely comical, fictionalized view of the computer programming genius. Together, they’ve created fully developed and multidimensional characters, while relating their take on the development and growth of the social networking site. They’ve explored the blurry lines of concepts such as intellectual property, without patronizing nor placing blame on anyone. It’s a film about obsessions, ambition, friendship, betrayal, money, and clashing egos.

The screenplay has the courtroom— where the different testimonies from the famous lawsuits are given—as its frame. While Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's best friend at the time, argues he was abruptly and cold-heartedly cut out, the Winklevoss twins claim their idea was stolen. The narrative momentum, the rapid interluding and cutting of scenes, serves to illustrate the speed in which Facebook grew.

The script is fresh, comedic in a Shakespearean manner and intriguing. The dialogue is talkative and filled with brittle exchanges and one-liners. Fincher and Sorkin made the viewer feel as if they are part of the movie, following Zuckerberg and the others through their entire experience and letting them decide for themselves who is to blame if anyone is.

What made The Social Network one of the most talked about films of 2010, was its outstanding character development. This was a combination of Fincher’s meticulous direction, Sorkin’s impeccable script and Jesse Eisenberg’s Oscar-worthy performance of the Zuckerberg. Instead of making the temperamental genius's character comical, which could have easily happened, Eisenberg humanized the character.

While it would have been easy to portray him in a negative light, framing him as the “bad guy,” the screenwriter, director, and actor created a multidimensional character viewers have mixed feelings about. However, they did not fall into the trap of painting him as the hero of the story, the damage he caused is also shown.

Fincher used the same procedural techniques he used in some of his thriller movies such as Zodiac. By avoiding eliciting the viewer’s empathy for the characters, he made the film into a type of conspiracy thriller.

The characters are annoying and spiteful, yet sympathetic at times, but most importantly, they are believable. Zuckerberg isn’t portrayed as a warm being, on the contrary, he is passive aggressive, revengeful, self-entitled and rarely cracks a smile. The film is directed in such as way, that even when there are people doing drugs, laughing in parties or swimming in the pool, the entertainment seems dull and mechanical. This is partly achieved through the somber color palette with little depth.

The movie serves as a critique to social media, basically portraying it as antisocial— a paradox one sees every day in society. There is some irony in the fact that a socially inept man with poor people skills, created one of the world’s largest social networking sites. The Social Network shows how the rise of social media has in a way, been the downfall of the value of individuals.