LIHU‘E — At first he seems little more than an angry nerd with a penchant for blogging, programming and writing code. That’s until, of course, he launches “The Facebook,” an elitist, online social-status registry of sorts (which debuted as a
LIHU‘E — At first he seems little more than an angry nerd with a penchant for blogging, programming and writing code.
That’s until, of course, he launches “The Facebook,” an elitist, online social-status registry of sorts (which debuted as a for-Harvard-students-only site) that starts spreading in popularity at an almost epidemic rate — first college-wide, then globally.
But the film “The Social Network,” which tells a less-than-flattering account of Facebook architect Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and the origin of what is now the largest online social-networking site, proposes a challenge to viewers: Whether to like (or even empathize with) its founder.
Put simply, Zuckerberg isn’t likeable. In fact, he’s the sort of person you might not even accept a “friend request” from.
It is a problem that is three-fold to say the least. This is because Zuckerberg 1.) makes privileged Harvard blue bloods such as the Winklevoss twins, two crew-rowing, upper-crust elitists, look like nice guys; 2.) screws over an ex-girlfriend by ruining her reputation in an online forum; and 3.) subsequently screws over his best (and only) friend, site co-founder Eduardo Severin (Andrew Garfield) to the tune of $500 million so that he can befriend a more-popular, cooler guy: Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake).
He also is kind of a cyber bully and misogynist. This is obvious with his debut of “Facemash,” one of his biggest online achievements before Facebook: a nasty little Web site that ranks the “hotness” (or lack thereof) of actual female Harvard students based on their school photos.
Add to the mix that it’s pretty clear the world’s youngest billionaire stole the basic idea of Facebook from the aforementioned twins (though he did arguably improve upon the idea), that his onslaught of deadpan quips throughout the film make him appear to be quite the grating little jerk, and that he has the kind of face you just sort of want to punch.
That said, it should be noted that the film, though at times shallow, provides a decent account of what probably happened and also a likely embellished version of the days surrounding Facebook’s inception.
And, despite whether a viewer wants to take it at face value (no pun intended), the film that was adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book the “Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal,” is at times interesting.
This is despite several scenes that seem like they would be better suited in a music video rather than a movie (with dialogue that can’t be heard over the ‘90s techno) and a series of gratuitous, annoying little vignettes of college-age girls making out or doing cocaine off each other’s bodies.
The fact that the film is at times interesting is in part thanks to the compelling quality of witnessing the simple dynamic of a group of nerdy, able-bodied Harvard boys stumbling upon a fruitful mechanism that catches on faster than any kind of business plan could predict, then asking the question: “What happens when a few, wicked-smart youths get rich fast?”
Unfortunately for those who had a hand in the idea of Facebook, the answer seems to be: Friends screw over each other, and lawsuits result.
Overall, “The Social Network” is the kind of movie where one has to ignore Zuckerberg’s lack of loyalty to stomach his success. It’s a decently made film about a quintessential malcontent geek that could’ve easily been a made-for-TV docudrama just like that one about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, “Pirates of Silicon Valley.”
