Movie Review: "The Social Network"

Before I start my review of the movie, here are my brief thoughts about Facebook. When I was in college, AIM was THE thing. We were obsessed with creating the perfect away messages and listening to that DING! That was how we social networked back in the day. I didn't join Facebook until 2006. I was currently using MySpace at the time and didn't feel like switching. I didn't join earlier because I didn't want to do what everyone else was doing. When I did join, it was only open to college students. I'm sorry to everyone who uses it now, but I honestly miss those days. Now everyone is using Facebook, like my dad for example so sometimes I have to be careful about what I share.

When I heard about this movie coming out, I will admit that I didn't really have any desire to see the movie. Even though I am a Facebook user, did I really want to see a movie about Facebook? Therefore even pretty much until a few weeks before it came out, I was still skeptical about the movie. But then I was hearing raves from critics about the movie. And I knew that David Fincher's movies are always great. And even more outrageous? That Justin Timberlake's acting was Oscar worthy. Ok that alone sold me. So I went along with my usual partner in crime whenever I got to the movies, my younger sister who informed me that she was one of the early users of Facebook.

A bit of fluff here: The men in this movie are HAWT (well except for Jesse Eisenberg, sorry!). Andrew Garfield is hot...and he wears black a lot which is a good look for him. Justin Timberlake, well it's JT, no need to say anything else. But Armie Hammer who plays the Winklevoss twins (well another guy plays the body of one of them, more on this later) is drop dead gorgeous. Seriously, just drool worthy. Alas he is married (well so am I but you know) so to all the girls out there who developed instant crushes, their hearts will be dashed. I bring this up merely to point out that even though I know these people are actors, it's nice to portray smart guys as being attractive and not the nerd/geek stereotype Hollywood loves to normally portray them.

It's hard for me to explain at how good this movie is. I soon found out it's not a movie about Facebook but it's about the people who created Facebook and their relationships. It's an incredibly depth character study. The acting is superb. Andrew Garfield is the standout of this movie. His portrayal of Eduardo Saverin is outstanding. A movie review described him as the everyman who gets betrayed which is exactly how he acted. You could not help but root for him, feel his pain and then relish in his final say. Justin Timberlake is really good in his role as Sean Parker. He loses himself in the role which was good because at first I just kept seeing JT. Armie Hammer has the distinct role of playing The Winklevoss twins BUT he is only the head of Tyler Winklevoss. Josh Pence plays his body. There is some excellent CGI work going on there because you could not tell this at all. Favorite line of the movie from him: "I'm 6'5in, 220 lb and there are two of me!" Jesse Eisenberg also stands out in his role as Mark Zuckenberg. I have no idea if Zuckenberg is that way in real life but it appears that he seems to have Aspergers. Either way, throughout the story, I felt really annoyed with him but at the same time in awe of his genius. I hated the way he treated Eduardo but I could see why he was being lured to bigger things. Eisenberg is extremely effective in portraying him.

I realize that this is probably the flimsiest review I've done on here, but I really enjoyed this movie. I normally do not see dramas like this in theaters, especially one that is pretty much all dialogue. But I will have to say that this is the best $10 I have spent on a movie in a long time. When Oscar season comes, I am 95% sure this movie will be up for several awards - Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Andrew Garfield (I've heard talk that JT and Hammer might have shots at nominations as well) , Best Director and Best Picture. Almost everyone I've talk to that's seen the movie has said how much they liked it. It's the story of my generation.