As some may know, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook during his sophmore year at Harvard University with the help of his best friend Eduardo Saverin (you can look them up on facebook.com). The movie presents Zuckerberg as being a loner with few friends who wants desperately to be a part of the Pheonix Club on campus. When the popular crew team twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, approach Zuckerberg about making a social connection website for Harvard students, Zuckerberg jumps at the opportunity. Zuckerberg enlists the financial help of Saverin and begins to build thefacebook based on the Winklevoss' idea. Thefacebook becomes an instant success and Zuckerberg is rocketed into stardom. Soon he is entertaining the likes of Sean Paker, Napster founder, and before long is the target of multiple lawsuits.
Of course we all know the success of Facebook and the great drama that surrounds its founders. Still, I was never fully aware of its development and the possible corruption in its founding. The movie portrays Zuckerberg as emotion-less and obsessed with being noticed by the "in" crowd even if it means sacrificing his only friends. The film bounces between his legal battles and the history of Facebook which took a bit of getting used to but I think that it worked. The acting is excellent and though Zuckerberg doesn't come off as being such a great guy, the movie does solicit some sympathy for him.
I think that this is an important movie not just because the script is tight, the acting is excellent, and the subject matter is timely, but also because the influence that Facebook (and Zuckerberg) have had on society is tremendous. Six years ago, no one would ever have thought that the word "friend" could be turned into a noun or that one could experience someone else's party or vacation by sitting on their own couch hundreds of miles away. Now someone can "friend" another person or be "defriended" and pictures can be uploaded to facebook so that people you're not even friends with can comment on pictures of your birthday. It's a kind of revolution that we still don't fully understand and possibly won't for many years. Still, this film reminds us that Facebook is just another website and therefore just another business laden with growing pains and legal troubles. While it did, for a second, make me want to deactivate my facebook (my sentiments were shared by my friend who went to see the film with me) I don't think that's the point of the film. Its message is not anti-facebook but merely proves that it is not God's gift to man. Instead, it was created as a means to distract Zuckerberg from his breakup with his girlfriend and which in turn has helped to distract over 150 million from around the world.
-DLP
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