Review: THE SOCIAL NETWORK; Smart, tense, and absolutely invigorating to watch.

By Mark Zhuravsky / July 1, 2011

rating: 4.5

(Re-running of our NYFF review as 'The Social Network' is previewing in U.K. cinema's tonight, before going nationwide on Friday). A word of warning - you're going to hear and read a lot of hyperbole about this movie. This is why 'The Social Network' is smart, tense, and absolutely invigorating to watch. It is a triumph for crew and cast and the audience as well (a major exception being the real-life people these actors portray). Whether Network is the defining film of this decade, the last, or the next remains to be seen and in any case, if this is the kind of wordplay on hand, we must be really starving for a non-condescending, genuinely interesting motion picture to pop up in theaters. At the very least, David Fincher's new film refuses to spell out proceedings legal and otherwise. Ben Mezrichs book The Accidental Billionaires is the jumping-off point for Aaron Sorkin's exhaustively studious screenplay, balancing machine-gun wordplay with unexpected (and often delightful) moments of caustic humor. Sorkin draws on a well of information available in this day and age to take us back to an ancient time in human history Harvard, 2003. A young(er) Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, definitively putting aside his Michael Cera-esque mumblisms for a nervy, exhilarating performance) breaks up with Erica Albright (Rooney Mara, owning two scenes in the film and making us look forward to her taking on the mantle of Lisbeth Salander in Finchers next), comes back to his dorm room and hatchessomething. From there, we leap between the trial leveled against Zuckeberg by a variety of defendants, former and apparently only friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfieldalso exemplary) sharing sad and damning glares with Zuckerberg. The other defendants include Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and a very amusing Armie Hammer, playing privileged twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

What 'The Social Network' undoubtedly is is a film of the moment, attuned and engineered to appeal to a generation who grew in the midst of one young maven who had the means to put out a killer app and keep it running. How much truth or fiction is in Sorkins script is frankly, irrelevant it is a problematic account if you choose to scour for true and false details but the film is not about Zuckerberg, or Saverin or even Napster founder Sean Parker (a toned-down Justin Timberlake). The film is about Facebook, a journalistic approach that doesnt allow for much characterization but wrings meaning out of action the pacing and dialogue are evidence to that, anchored by Kirk Baxter and Angus Walls spectacularly tight editing for which, without exaggeration, Im fairly certain this film will take home the Oscar come this winter. Everyone in 'Network' is on the move and downtime as well as self-reflection are allotted rarely and in small doses Finchers eye for composition and blocking is (here comes the hyperbole) reminiscent of Kubrick and you have to commend the man for making Harvard frat parties look like, well, beautiful orgies of flesh and alcohol. Fincher plays host to Sorkins dialogue and moves his camera adeptly to match the pace breathlessly sometimes but still and unmoving at others. The cinematography, by Jeff Cronenweth, who also lensed 'Fight Club', is alluring, smokey and tinted during the Harvard days or all polished steel locked into the office where the Facebook settlement will be decided. 'The Social Network' is equally tempting, so sleek and impeccably delivered that it is easy to get sucked in a compliment and a warning. Dont come to this film for an account of the truth, strange and ribald as it may or may not be. See it because as a piece of filmmaking, it is grand, a time at the movies that will put your brain in traction. And thats a whole lot of something. 'The Social Network' is previewing in the U.K. tonight, before opening nationwide on Friday'.