For Your Consideration: The Social Network

By Janna Jeffrey

Many film critics and entertainment blogs are touting The Social Network as “the film that defines a generation”. As Sean Parker says towards the end of the film, “We are going to live on the Internet”. We do, to some extent, live on the Internet. And The Social Network represents that. It’s a film about friendship, betrayal, power, and what happens to a bunch of nineteen-year-old kids who get themselves in way over their heads, and has gotten people talking.

Chances are, if you haven’t seen The Social Network, you looked at this year’s Best Picture nomination list and went, “The movie about Facebook? Really?”

Yes, really. And no, it isn’t a movie about Facebook.

Sure, Facebook is the invention the movie is referring to, and it’s what brings all our characters together. But the message of the movie isn’t, “Get on Facebook”. The movie wasn’t made to espouse all of Facebook’s wonders or expose its evils. The Social Network is about a pair of friends who come up with a billion-dollar idea – and find themselves biting off far more than they can chew. You could replace Facebook with any modern company or genius idea and the story wouldn’t be any different. At its heart, The Social Network is about so much more than just Facebook.

The Social Network, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, the co-founders of Facebook. With impressive performances by both Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, we watch the idea take shape and expand, and then we watch as everything falls apart. Eisenberg and Garfield have created such an onscreen bond that you can’t help but feel how close these friends are – it’s all over their faces and it’s in all their actions. You feel something for this friendship, which makes it all the more devastating to watch it fall apart. Supporting cast includes Armie Hammer (assisted by Josh Pence) as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Harvard students who agreed to work with Mark on a site called Harvard Connection; Justin Timberlake as Napster co-founder Sean Parker; Rooney Mara as Mark’s ex-girlfriend; and Brenda Song as groupie and Eduardo’s girlfriend. The cast has the demanding job of portraying real people without resorting to mimicry and they pull it off, providing us with layered characters and interesting motives. This young cast is one of the freshest, most talented ones I’ve seen at the movies lately.

Aaron Sorkin is known for his dialogue, and that’s what everyone focuses on when they talk about this script – the quick, witty words spoken by these intelligent characters. But it’s important not to overlook the screenplay’s actual structure. The Social Network is framed by two depositions – the Winklevoss’ and Eduardo’s, both against Mark – with flashbacks telling much of the story. The screenplay is built with a three-act structure, creating tension and changing the game as it goes. The fact that they create Facebook or that something bad happens isn’t the surprise – it’s the reveal as to how it all happens that is the discovery. Writing the film this way, so that the audience has to work to find out what happened, keeps us in suspense and pushes us to want to know more. Sorkin has written these flashbacks in such a way that they don’t get boring – they don’t feel plotted or taxing. Questions asked in the depositions are answered in the flashbacks; sentences are begun in a courtroom and completed in a dorm room. It’s that variety, that fast, exhilarating pace that pulls the audience through the film.

What I love the most, though, is the way Fincher, Sorkin, and the actors handle the characters and their motivations. The Social Network has multiple characters with multiple points of view; Mark, Eduardo, the Winklevoss twins, and Sean Parker all have opinions as to who owns what and how the company should be run. The exciting part is that it’s up to the viewer to determine who’s in the right, who’s in the wrong, and who acted unfairly. I’ve found myself sympathizing with every character at different times in the film, even Sean and Mark, who are arguably the film’s two most unlikeable characters. And in talking with others who have seen the film, I’ve found that everyone’s opinion is a little different. Some feel Mark is a total asshole; some feel pity for him. Some peoples’ hearts go out to Eduardo, while others feel he was foolish for not seeing it all coming. The film doesn’t tell us what to believe – it leaves it all up to us. People have come out of this movie debating, arguing, and talking. And isn’t that what makes a great movie? That you’re still thinking about it after you leave the theatre, that you’re discussing it with others? That seeing it more than once will bring to light new motivations and characters’ reasonings? The Social Network isn’t a film that unites the audience in one frame of mind; the audience doesn’t come out of this movie all feeling the same way. People have come out of this movie with differing opinions, enough so that they want to argue about it with their friends. Isn’t that an incredible achievement?

Many film critics and entertainment blogs are touting The Social Network as “the film that defines a generation”, and I’ve seen just as many people who are appalled by that very notion. If you ask me, I think the critics are right. I don’t think that when they say, “defines a generation”, they’re claiming that our generation is full of backstabbing, misogynistic, single-minded twenty-somethings who’ll stop at nothing to reach the top. That’s ridiculous – of course our generation isn’t like that. I think that they’re referring to the way our generation uses technology. Facebook is arguably one of the biggest sites on the Internet – almost everyone is on it. And it is integral in the lives of many twenty-somethings. Who among us has never used the words “Facebook me”? Who among us has never sent a friend a Poke, or said, “No, don’t send me those pictures – I’ll get them off Facebook later”? I know I have. When people call The Social Network “the film that defines a generation”, they’re saying that we’re a generation intertwined with technology, whose computers and phones and Internet lingo is ours and ours alone. We stay connected using Facebook and Twitter, we upload videos onto Youtube and search using Google, and we have friends from far-off countries thanks to things like Livejournal and message boards. As Sean Parker says towards the end of the film, “We are going to live on the Internet”. We do, to some extent, live on the Internet. And The Social Network represents that.

The Social Network isn’t a film with an uplifting message. It isn’t a film about overcoming a great struggle or defying all the odds, and it sure isn’t a film where everyone goes home happy at the end. It’s a film about friendship, betrayal, power, and what happens to a bunch of nineteen-year-old kids who get themselves in way over their heads. It’s a film that has people arguing. It’s a film that has people debating. It’s a film that’s gotten people talking – and isn’t that kind of the whole point of filmmaking, anyway?

The Social Network has been nominated for Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Cinematography, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Editing, Original Score, Sound Mixing, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture of 2010.

Janna Jeffrey spent four years studying film production at York University in Toronto, Canada.  She now works as an assistant editor for television.  Janna loves cats, plain M&Ms, and a movie with great characters. Email her at jannajeffrey@gmail.com.