While watching
The Social Network this past friday night, I was in awe (much like I was watching the beautiful
trailer). In awe of how pitch-perfect everything was. In awe of the breakneck pace that was still clear and powerful. In awe of Jesse Eisenberg and how much I sympathized with his conceited, brilliant billionaire. There's a unique swagger to his Mark Zuckerberg. The kind of swagger that comes with being unimaginably wealthy and blindingly intelligent. And yet those traits don't bury him in unlikeability. Eisenberg, Fincher and Sorkin humanize Zuckerberg by making him a really smart kid with a crush. And a helluva revenge streak.
Fincher lends the Facebook story his signature low-light visuals in beautiful widescreen. Whereas Oliver Stone's auteur visuals sometimes felt slapped on with scotch tape to
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Fincher's tone is fully realized and executed with an astounding precision. Though there are more delightful visual surprises in WS2:MNS, I preferred
The Social Network's commitment and cohesion. (Also, that rowing sequence? Beautiful use of
tilt-shift photography turning this sport of affluence into a spectacle of tiny, plastic toys)
But, Eisenberg. This is his show. He rarely smiles and instead emotes through his eyes, eybrows and jaw. You can see his wheels turning, burning at high speeds. You're impressed with his wit and geeky charm. You realize that although his mind is running on a high-end processor, his emotions and social skills run on a floppy disk. The only thing he ever claims to have interest in is being cool. Which makes the casting of his mentor, Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker, all the more perfect.
Parker is cool in large part because the bravado that Timberlake brings to the role. He knows fine food and the names of the waitresses who bring it. He flirts with ease. He has no respect for the authoritative "Man". He is smooth. He wears hoodies. Zuckerberg's relationship with Parker is reminiscent of a high school crush on an upperclassmen. Zuckerberg wants to BE Parker. This is echoed by the casting of Timberlake who looks like the Hollywood version of Eisenberg - his Jewish curls cut stylishly short.
The emotional core of the film lies in the relationship between Zuckerberg and co-founder, wealthy Brazilian kid, Eduardo Saverin (played by soon-to-be Spiderman2.0, Andrew Garfield). Filled with half-truths and jealousy, love and dependency, it's their story that makes the drama in
The Social Network so captivating. Due in large part to the fact that these are surely to be two of the defining actors of a generation.
The Social Network is an incredible ride about the personally disconnected kid who connected the world impersonally. Made with the same type of confidence and smarts that Zuckerberg owns onscreen, it's an underdog tale where the underdog just happens to be the youngest billionaire in the world. And by the end, you're rooting for him.
"Critical" Bits:
Class struggle. Harvard sucks. Fraternities suck. Bros suck.
Armie Hammer rules.The things boys do trying to win a girl. i.e. Invent Facebook.
Trent Reznor's score is haunting and helps propel the film forward, forward, forward.
Nicholas Cage rocks an inexplicable V-shaped chest hair and still pulls off sexy.
