Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Last week I went to the movies to see The Social Network aka "the Facebook movie", a film that singlehandedly restored my quickly fading faith in Hollywood.

It feels like we've had a bad year at the movies.

Then, David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) teams up with The West Wing creator and scribe Aaron Sorkin on a project that admittedly, doesn't sound that inspiring to begin with, but turns out to be everything it purports to be and more. It may seem a little soon to be making a major Hollywood production about Facebook, however, at the same time as even the most reluctant or unlikely computer users are starting up an FB account, the currency of the story that Facebook was founded on is the entire point.

Social media, and in particular Facebook has moved so quickly to form a daily constant in the lives of modern media consumers that it seems we've barely had time to process what it means to be interconnected on this level. The vast majority of people who go to see the film will have a Facebook account, and even those that don't will react to the story on a very personal level.

Why do I (or choose not to) have a Facebook profile and what does it say about me?

That the man at the very core of this story is young, socially awkward and in many ways the epitome of the 'computer nerd', renders the story even more compelling. How can Mark Zuckerberg understand the mechanics and motivations of social interaction so well that he has created a social network so powerful that even HRH Queen Elizabeth II has a page, yet be so inept at maintaining relationships with even his 'closest' friends and business partners?

The partnership of Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg is brilliantly interpreted by Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg in the film and although the storyline jumps back and forth from the beginning of their inspired partnership to their falling out and legal wrangling, the narrative never gives up all of its secrets. Once we realise that the once close friends are now on opposite sides of a legal battle we anticipate the denoument with the question "what could have possibly caused them to go their separate ways?"

Empire Magazine cleverly described the film as a 'geek tragedy' and in that sense, it is remarkable that story twists in ways that seem to echo the Machiavellian plots of the ancient classics, or the tragicomedy of Shakespeare. It is, after all, a story about power, rivalry, friendships made and lost, influence and greed. Set against the backdrop of modern-day life, the narrative still retains all the hallmarks of a morality play.

There is rapid-fire dialogue and some stunning cinematography (particularly in the rowing scene) but for the most part, the two men behind the reins of the project let the story steer itself. And as the story is one without a precise ending, we are left with the intrigue of discovering for ourselves what future events may unfold.