Movie Review: The Social Network(#4)

It took Facebook about 10 months to reach a million users. The Social Network is a film that attempts to tell the story of its creation up to this point, and the aftermath of lawsuits and broken friendships that it left in its wake.

Opening in 2010, the film won awards, including the Golden Globe, and other nominations, such as one for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, the film uses the lawsuits issued by some of the people involved in the origins of Facebook in order to trace its history, from the first inspiration Mark Zuckerberg, its creator, had in his Harvard dorm room to its rise to one million users, and the effects felt upon all the characters. The film is based a book called The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, which I have read. Eduardo Saverin, a cofounder of Facebook, served as a consultant for the novel. Aaron Sorkin does a great job in creating a compelling film out of the book, and David Fincher skillfully translates it to the screen. The acting isn’t great, but it is good, and the actors inhabit the characters nicely.  

A good college film contains a good portrayal of the social elements of college, a portrayal of the college itself from the teachers to the classes, and a portrayal of a student, his life as a student, and doesn’t simply include a college. The accuracy does not matter because the portrayal will most likely use a certain stereotype and an accurate account would be most likely boring.

The film spends much of the first quarter of the film setting up the social aspects of college as it is inspiration for Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook in order to appeal to people. The social element of college also plays an important for Mark in his inspiration to create a college life on the internet. The film portrays Eduardo Saverin as attempting to get into a final clubs, and the one of the scenes at the beginning of the film shows a party being thrown by one of them. Later on, however, the film moves very much away from college and the social aspects.

The film is adequate in showing the college itself, but not much. A few scenes portray classes such as when Mark Zuckerberg leaves a lecture before it is over. In another scene, the president is involved in a discussion with some of the characters. The film is much more about the characters place socially in the college and less about the college itself. Most of the characters in the film are college students and it does portray their life somewhat at the college. However, the film does go off from the college later on, leaving the college and the life of the student.

The film itself is great and compelling. The story really hooks you and the characters are great. However, this is not a great college film, but maybe just a good college film. Much of the story is away from the college, and the scenes taking place at the college are more about the characters themselves and not their life at the college.