Wasted protoplasm

Everyone is on facebook. This is fact. Odds are, unless you’re a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist who is already vying for space on the moon colony so that they can’t steal “your secrets”, or a technophobe who thinks that polyphonic ringtones are the future and that internet is just a convenient swimming pool nappy, you are on facebook. Let me rephrase: everyone normal is on facebook.  One might imagine that a film about a website which facilitates an inevitably futile set of activities would be one to avoid. 

When rumours about ‘The Facebook Movie” first leaked onto the web a few years back, it was met with ridicule by the ever thoughtful, self-aware hivemind that is the internet: “I’m going to wait for the Twitter movie”, they scoffed hilariously, “it’ll be like this except much more epic: 140 characters!”. Slowly details of the cast and production crew began to trickle down, and film buffs all around the world enjoyed in a collective erection. Produced by Kevin Spacey, directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac), and with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men), The Social Network boasts some serious talent behind the scenes.

It is and isn’t about facebook. The film doesn’t probe the ethical dilemmas encountered by characters flicking through stranger’s “Summer ’10!!!!”  photo album telling themselves it’s OK  “because everyone does it”, instead focusing on the (much more interesting) story about how Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) founded facebook and became the world’s youngest billionaire.

The film portrays Zuckerberg’s rise to fame, starting from his first website, a nascent version of Hot or Not, through to the present day with Zuckerberg being sued from all sides by former colleagues and friends. Eisenberg is an inspired piece of casting, portraying Zuckerberg as socially awkward, occasionally ruthless, and often brilliant; a lesser performance could have seen Zuckerberg emerge as the villain of the piece, but the Eisenberg is somewhat likeable, and the character emerges not as a pantomime villain, but as a somewhat affable geek. 

Eisenberg stands out, but the supporting cast are for the most part impressive, Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer merit special mentions, the former playing Zuckerberg’s charming best friend and co-founder of facebook, the latter playing a the Winklevoss twins, delivering a hilarious performance as the archetypal Ivy League rowing jock, while Justin Timberlake plays the sleazy Napster founder Sean Parker well, tempting Zuckerberg with the promise of millions, bevies of beautiful women, and a place in internet history.

While the details are murky, Facebook have dismissed the movie as fiction , which isn’t hard to believe; who honestly believes that web programmers snort cocaine off underage girls stomachs?

Nonetheless, the movie is great value for money, at times witty, at others poignant, but constantly entertaining: this is 2 hours worth of great character drama made  by an an incredibly talented group of filmmakers; it’s not something you get often from Hollywood. ‘Like’ isn’t strong enough.