Review: The Social Network

The Social Network is a drama about the founding of the social networking website Facebook and battle with lawsuits resulting by the creation. The film was directed David Fincher, and the script was written by Aaron Sorkin.  The screenplay is an adaptation of the Accidental Billionaires. The film was produced under a budget of $50 million, and grossed over $130 million. This is a critical success, gaining high ratings from well know critiques.

The plot of the film is as follows. The film starts in a noisy bar where Zuckerberg and his girlfriend are having a conversation. At the end of the conversation, his girlfriend dumps him. Fueled by anger, Zuckerberg stomps to his dorm. Then he hacks the college network and obtains pictures of every female student. Then he sets up a site called Facemash, a site which students can give ratings to girls based on their hotness. This was an instant hit. He then catches the attention of the Winklevoss twins, who have a great idea of setting up social media sites only for Harvard students, Harvard Connect. He takes this idea, and with help of his best friend, Ecuador Saverin, seta up the site, TheFacebook. Sean Parker, founder of Napster, came across the site when Zuckerberg expanded the site to other colleges. Zuckerberg met Sean Parker while he was in New York searching for advertising offers. Sean Parker gives ideas, which makes Zuckerberg move to Silicone Valley, with funds from Ecuador. The site became very successful. After few months, Ecuador loses his shares in the company, as he was not directly involved in its operations. Zuckerberg has to fight against two lawsuits during the film, one by Ecuador losing share in the company, and the other for stealing Winklevoss twin’s idea. At the end Mark loses the court battle, and has to pay $68 million to Winklevoss twins, and an undisclosed amount to Ecuador. Ecuador also gets his status as founder restored. This is the plot of the movie.

This is a great film. Even though, the film does not portray the accurate events which happened during Zuckerbergs’s first year in Harvard, but it is almost like a biography of his first year in Harvard. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a sociopath in the film, but he may not be a sociopath in real life. The performances of actors portraying real life characters are as accurate as it can be. The film has dramatized the actual events to more interesting and exciting ones. The screenplay is very funny for a drama. There are intense conversations in the film. These are the features that make this film great.