Current Film Review: The Social Network

I remember it was sophomore year at Sterling Apartments, and we were all sitting on the couch watching some TV. Lauren had her laptop out, and was hyping about this new program on the internet called TheFacebook. It was basically a social network for people in college. The idea sounded brilliant to me, and as soon as I got home that night, I created my own profile, and began to spread the word. Throughout my college years, checking my Facebook page became as frequent if not more than checking my email. It's been nearly six years since I set up my account, and to this day I still enjoy the many conveniences of this social network.

So when the film, The Social Network, began to emerge, I knew it would be extremely interesting to catch this story about the creation of Facebook. I finally saw it this past Thursday in Skokie, Illinois and can say that it lived up to its praise, and is full of extremely interesting information about the company. The story revolves around the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg, as well as his college friends and co-creators. The film portrays Zuckerburg as an extremely quick and witty person, socially awkward, and an utter genius. As a student at Harvard University, he comes to prominence one night, when he creates a website known as the FaceMash, which receives over 10,000 hits in less than 3 hours... He thus becomes a celebrity on campus, and is recruited to help design another website known as the Harvard Connection. It becomes clear in the movie, that Zuckerburg steals their idea to create his own social network. The film then goes back and forth between the creation of Facebook, and the two major lawsuits of the company. One being by the creators of the Harvard Connection, claiming that Zuckerburg stole their idea, and in the end manage to receive a settlement of 65 million dollars. The other being, Zuckerburg's friend and co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, who also won a settlement. The film kept my interest the entire time, mostly due to the true subject matter. Yet I would say the only weak point, was the acting, especially with Justin Timberlake's terrible performance as the founder of Napster. To me the film goes beyond the creation of Facebook, and captures the lifestyle of these rich spoiled Ivy league students, who have no concept of money. With all that said I would say this could be one of the best dramas of the year, and truly worthy of some Academy recognition.