"The Social Network"

Title: "The Social Network"

Director: David Fincher
Producers: D. Fincher, S. Rudin, K. Spacey, etc...
Editing: K. Baxter and A. Wall
Composer: T. Reznor and A. Ross
Starring:
- Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg
- Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin
- Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker
- Armie Hammer as Cameron Winklevoss/Tyler Winklevoss
- Josh Pence as the body double for Hammer as Tyler Winklevoss
- Brenda Song as Christy Lee
- Max Minghella as Divya Narendra
- Rashida Jones as Marylin Delpy
- Joseph Mazzello as Dustin Moskovitz
- Rooney Mara as Erica Albright

Plot and Critical Review: The framing device throughout the film shows Mark Zuckerberg being deposed in two lawsuits: one filed by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and the other by Eduardo Saverin. The story of the creation of Facebook is told through flashbacks from both depositions.

In 2003, Erica Albright breaks up with Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg. Back at his dorm Mark gets drunk and writes a scathing blog entry about her and is inspired to create a website on which people can rate the attractiveness of female students when compared to each other. He downloads pictures of female students from the databases of various residence halls, and, in a few hours he creates a website called "FaceMash". The website takes off like wildfire. Mark receives six months of academic probation after the web traffic to the site brings down parts of Harvard's network. Mark becomes instantly vilified among most of Harvard's female community. However, FaceMash's popularity and the fact that Mark created it in one night while drunk brings him to the attention of the Winklevoss twins and their business partner Divya Narendra. As a result, he gets a job working for the Winklevoss twins as the programmer of their new social website, Harvard Connection.

Soon afterward, Mark approaches Eduardo and tells him of his idea for what he calls "Thefacebook", an online social networking website exclusive to Harvard University students. He explains this would let people share personal and social information securely. Eduardo agrees to help Mark, providing $1,000 to help start the site. Mark builds the site from scratch over the course of a couple of weeks, all the while avoiding the Winklevoss twins and totally forsaking Harvard Connection. Facebook is soon completed and they distribute the link to Eduardo's connections at the Phoenix S-K final club, and it quickly becomes popular throughout the student body. When they learn of Thefacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra believe Zuckerberg had stolen their idea while stalling on their website. Tyler and Divya want to sue Mark for intellectual property theft, but Cameron convinces them they can settle the matter as "gentlemen of Harvard".

At a lecture by Bill Gates, fellow Harvard student Christy Lee introduces herself and her friend Alice Cantwel to Eduardo and Mark. She asks the Eduardo to "Facebook me" so they can get together later. Christy's use of this phrase impresses both of them. Mark and Eduardo meet Christy and Alice for drinks and, at the bar, Mark runs into Erica. Mark tries to apologize for his past behavior, but Erica won't hear any of it. She isn't aware of the popularity of Thefacebook as she isn't a Harvard student. Mark decides to expand the site to more schools in the Northeastern U.S., while the Winklevoss twins and Narendra become angrier at seeing "their idea" advance without them. Cameron refuses to sue them, instead accusing Mark of violating the Harvard student Code of Conduct. They arrange a meeting with Harvard President Larry Summers, who sees no potential value in either a disciplinary action or in Thefacebook website itself. The twins are dismissed.

Through Christy, now Eduardo's girlfriend, Eduardo and Mark arrange a meeting with Napster co-founder Sean Parker. When Christy, Mark, and Eduardo meet Sean, Eduardo becomes skeptical noting Sean's problematic personal and professional history. Christy thinks Eduardo is jealous of Sean, and attempts to calm him to avoid a scene. Sean presents a vision for Facebook very similar to Mark's, which earns Mark's instant admiration. In a parting comment, Sean suggests they drop the "The" from Thefacebook.

Mark immediately moves the company to Palo Alto, while Eduardo remains in New York seeking advertising support. At a nightclub, Sean advises Mark to keep hold of his ownership of Facebook to ensure that Mark doesn't lose control of a potentially lucrative business venture, using Victoria's Secret founder Roy Raymond as an example. After Sean promises to expand Facebook to two other continents, Mark invites Sean to live at the house he and Eduardo are renting.

Meanwhile in England, while competing in the Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard, the Winklevoss twins discover Facebook has expanded to a number of English universities. Cameron finally relents and they decide to sue. When Eduardo visits from New York, he is angered to find Sean is living in their house and is making business decisions for Facebook. Eduardo pulls Mark aside and has an argument with him, with Mark making a demeaning remark regarding Eduardo's failed attempts at finding advertisers. Fed up with Mark's attitude toward him, Eduardo freezes the company's bank account and returns to New York. Upon returning, Christy argues with Eduardo about his Facebook profile, which still lists him as "single". When Christy questions Eduardo about why he has not changed his Facebook profile, he tells her he does not know how to, further infuriating Christy because she believes he is lying. She accuses him of cheating on her and sets fire to a scarf he has given to her. While Eduardo extinguishes the fire, Mark reveals on the phone that although he was upset that Eduardo almost jeopardized Facebook by freezing the bank account, they have secured $500,000 from Peter Thiel acting as an angel investor through Parker's contacts. Eduardo ends his romantic relationship with Christy and leaves immediately for Palo Alto to join Mark and the rest of the Facebook team.

Eduardo soon discovers the deal he signed with Sean's investors has allowed them to dilute his share of the company from 34 percent to 0.03 percent, while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. Devastated, he confronts Mark and announces his intention to sue him. Later that night, during a party celebrating Facebook's one millionth member, Sean and a number of underage Facebook interns are arrested for possession of cocaine. Sean calls Mark and tries to explain that he had nothing to do with the party or the drugs. An unbelieving Mark simply tells him to "go home."

The film ends with Mark sending a friend request to Erica on Facebook, and refreshing the page every few seconds as he waits for a response.

I'd like to give the floor to one of the masters of the film review, R. Ebert:

"In an age when movie dialogue is dumbed and slowed down to suit slow-wits in the audience, the dialogue here has the velocity and snap of screwball comedy. Eisenberg, who has specialized in playing nice or clueless, is a heat-seeking missile in search of his own goals. Timberlake pulls off the tricky assignment of playing Sean Parker as both a hot shot and someone who engages Zuckerberg as an intellectual equal. Andrew Garfield evokes an honest friend who is not the right man to be CFO of the company that took off without him, but deserves sympathy.

"The Social Network" is a great film not because of its dazzling style or visual cleverness, but because it is splendidly well-made. Despite the baffling complications of computer programming, web strategy and big finance, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay makes it all clear, and we don't follow the story so much as get dragged along behind it. I saw it with an audience that seemed wrapped up in an unusual way: It was very, very interested." (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100929/REVIEWS/100929984)

My Rating: 8/10

Content to Caution:
V-1 - No comment.
L-2.5 - No comment.
DU-3 - Mostly heavy drinking in dorm rooms, at parties, and at restaurants. Minors and adults are seen to be using cocaine and marijuana together at parties.
RT-0 - No comment.
H/S-1 - No comment.
CH-2.5 - Imagine the sort of jokes that Ivy League college students make. Yep, here they are.
S/N-2.5 - One scene in which Eduardo and (presumably) mark receive oral sex. Nothing is shown but their pants being unzipped. A bus full of women arrive at a Final Club party and seem to serve the members as prostitutes as they strip dance, and please the Club members.

The "Reel Revelation": "The Heart Of The Matter"

About six months before "The Social Network" came out a friend sent me a link to the trailer. I watched it and said "Oh, a movie about Facebook...that's cool." I'd almost forgotten about the trailer and the movie in general when I started seeing the usual celebrity interviews and press campaign surrounding the movie. Now the trailers were longer, more in-depth, and more revealing of the plot line. I watched some more trailers online and said "Oh, it doesn't really seem to be about Facebook at all." I went to see "The Social Network" a couple weeks after it opened and found that my suspicions were confirmed; this film is far more concerned with human relationship and communication than with the development of any digital social network. There's no denying that the creation of and subsequent fight for control over Facebook was a critical element to the film, but the heart of the matter in "The Social Network" was really in Mark and Eduardo's friendship. Other relationships and interactions fed into the energy of the work, of course, but that is where the truest tension and highest drama rested. If you left the theatre thinking about anything else, you might have seen the wrong movie.

Just as I was somewhat misled about believing "The Social Network" to be a certain type of movie (or a movie about a certain topic and nothing more), it's easy to mislead ourselves when it comes to getting to the heart of the matter in real life. Sometimes it's easiest to go with our first impressions ("Trust your gut!", right?) about people, situations, and opportunities. We judge based on what we can see and the most basic information we can gather, not unlike how we judge movies by their teaser trailers and books by their covers. Sometimes we might be right about those first impressions, but I suspect we're far more likely to be wrong. Only the best gunfighters shot straight when shooting from the hip. It's alright to be wrong about those first impressions when judging movies or music, but we must tread much more carefully when it comes to the issue of relationships and the heart.

Have you ever had a conversation with a person in which you felt that, no matter what topic you chose, you were never really talking about what you needed to be discussing? Perhaps you were trying to convey something important to another person but, try as you might, they never really heard the heart of your message. What about a conversation in which a person lashed out at you, possibly even hurting you, but you were left with the sense that they never meant to hurt you at all and that something else was pressing on their hearts? Have you ever answered the question "How are you?" (or one of it's many iterations) with a response that intentionally tried to deflect conversation away from how you were really feeling?

If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, do not worry and do not be discouraged. Even if you answered "yes" to all of them, do not let your heart be troubled, for you are no different than any other person in seeking to keep the heart of the matter private and protected. That's something we do very well, indeed; come to realize the most sensitive and sacred parts of our lives then shut them off and lock them away so no one else will ever get close.

What about those whom God sent to proclaim His word? God may have fueled them with divine truth and righteous fervor to communicate His word, but even they were misunderstood or rejected outright:

- We call Jeremiah the "Lamenting Prophet" because the people of Israel refused to hear the heart of his message; repent and return to the Lord.

- People flocked to see John the Baptist, the wild man that he was, but did they come to see a spectacle or to join with John in anticipating the arrival of the Messiah?

- Some heard Jesus' words and believed Him, but many were either unable or unwilling to hear the heart of His message, that God was near and had come into the world to save souls.

St. Paul said, "For now we see in a mirror dimly..." (1 Cor. 13:12) Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear..." (Mark 4:9) And yet we realize that we're stuck with eyes that cannot see clearly and ears that seem to be a little too stuffed to hear what we ought. Thus we pray that God will open our eyes and ears so that we might see and hear His Heart in this world. In so doing (both in prayer and in practice) we ask God to help us learn to listen to the hearts of our brothers and sisters, to help us see more clearly the needs of their hearts and how we can serve them in Christ's name. To that end we also learn how to become more open and honest when it comes to our own needs; we learn how to live humbly and openly share our hearts with others, even though we risk being hurt because we've exposed that most sacred part of our existence.

People will judge us just like I judged "The Social Network" based only on a teaser trailer. That's how it goes. Dim eyes and stuffed ears, remember? But if we choose to exercise patience, humility, and openness in God's name, we make giant leaps toward ensuring that those who we welcome into the "theatres of our hearts" won't walk out without getting the real message we want to share, the heart of the matter. Let that be our aim today and everyday, for if Christ be in our hearts He will also be on our tongues, and that's a message want to communicate clearly in every moment and in all places.

See you tomorrow- E.T.