The Social Network (2010) PG-13

I've had October 1st marked down on my calender for quite some time. Why you ask? The Social Network, that's why. David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) was at the helm of this thrilling drama. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson's War), and there's already Oscar buzz surrounding his script. This film is based on a true story, which you already know. We follow Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the creator of Facebook. Eisenberg (Adventureland, Zombieland) is absolutely sensational, which isn't a surprise.

The film begins in the fall of 2003 at Harvard University. The opening scene is set at a pub, where Mark and his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) are having drinks. Right off the bat we know Mark is not your typical sophomore. He's quite brilliant. He's a computer genius and scored a perfect score on his SAT. However, he's cruel, condescending, and extremely vain. Mark just wants to be accepted into a fraternity and believes they lead to a better life. Mark and Erica argue over it, and she dumps him. It's a fantastic opening scene.

Mark heads back to his dorm and blogs about his now ex-girlfriend. He says some hurtful stuff about her that everyone reads, and she never forgives him. While mildly drunk, Mark creates a website that compares girls on campus based on their looks. He's a genius at this stuff and he hacks his way through the process. He gets help from his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Garfield is another one of those young actors that have a really bright future. Mark e-mails it around and it garners 22,000 hits in under an hour and the Harvard server crashes because of it. Mark eventually gets put on academic probation because of it. Girls hate him more than ever because of the nature of the website, but some students now want his computer knowledge.

He gets invited to a frat house by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). Tyler and Cameron are identical twins. They are good looking, smart, built, and are on a fast track to becoming Olympians (which they eventually become). They throw out an idea about an exclusive Harvard website that's similar to Friendster and Myspace. Mark doesn't necessary like their idea but he runs with it. He starts to build a website called The Facebook. He doesn't tell the twins or Divya about it. Mark gets financial help from Eduardo, and some computer help from a couple friends, most notably Dustin (Joseph Mazzello).

In about three weeks, the website is almost ready to go. The final touch is the "relationship status" feature. First it's just Harvard students that can join The Facebook. Then it's Columbia, Yale and Stanford. On the other side of the country Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), a young entrepreneur, gets wind of The Facebook. He wants in. Timberlake (Alpha Dog, Southland Tales) is tremendous and this role will open some eyes. His first scene is excellent, where he and a Stanford student (Dakota Johnson) interact the morning after a sexual encounter.

Sean arranges a meeting with Mark and co-founder Eduardo. Eduardo's new girlfriend Christy (Brenda Song) also joins them. Mark and Eduardo find they have a following on campus that include "groupies," Christy was one of them. Sean likes to hear himself talk, and does a lot of it at their meeting. Sean was the creator of Napster, and he knows a lot of people. Instantly Eduardo doesn't like Sean, but Mark loves him. They haven't seen the last of Sean. Sean urges them to move to Los Angeles for the summer to get this website off and running. He also leaves them with one last idea, to change the name of the site from The Facebook to simply Facebook. "It's cleaner," he says.

Meanwhile the Winklevoss twins and Divya catch wind of the website and wish to sue Mark in federal court for stealing their website idea. Everyone disagrees with them, because of a "Harvard code." There are short courtroom scenes throughout the film, which are closer to the present day. We find out in these scenes that not only are the Winklevoss twins and Divya suing Mark, but so is his best friend Eduardo.

Lets get back to 2004. Mark and his techies move to L.A. to hook-up with Sean. Eduardo gives them $18,000 to use on the website. Eduardo stay behind to do an internship. Sean helps Mark find advertisers which turn this million-dollar idea, into a billion-dollar idea. Facebook is nearing one million friends now. Eduardo flies to L.A. to sign some documents, which state how many shares he holds. Everything seems to be going fantastic, but things go south real quick.

I'm not going to give anymore information, I don't want to ruin a single thing for anyone. This film is so complex and has so many multi-dimensional characters. Eisenberg, Garfield (Red Riding: 1974, Never Let Me Go), and Timberlake are all Oscar-worthy. Newcomers Mara, Hammer and Johnson all have some fantastic moments. I've failed to mention Rashida Jones (I Love You, Man) and John Getz (The Fly, Blood Simple.), who are both great as well. Brenda Song (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) is astonishingly good, much to my surprise.

Look, there's a reason for the hype, the Oscar buzz, and the hundreds of A+ reviews. It's something we can all relate to, because everyone uses Facebook. It truly is a movie that defines our generation. It brings back memories when I was at college, way back in 2006, and first heard about Facebook. The script, the acting, the score, the cinematography, the direction, the ending are all excellent. Move over Inception, this is the movie of the year, and will not go away any time soon. Please see this film!
A