Viewed in
2011
Formats
Zune HD streaming (Xbox 360)
Premise
A drama based on Mark Zuckerberg's creation of Facebook.
Loved
The nerdy dialog, Jesse Eisenberg's performance.
Disliked
Trent Reznor's distracting score.
Thoughts
An amazingly written film.
This was my first exposure to Aaron Sorkin, and I can see why people love his dialog. From the get-go, the rapid-paced words fired from a machine gun, and was relentlessly funny, insightful, and mesmerizing for two hours. Sorkin's portrayal of Zuckerberg was unapologetic, coarse, and memorable. Having been around plenty of nerds/geeks, his ability to channel this authentic personality/behavior was spot on.
In addition, Sorkin managed to mold two lawsuits, a ton of flashbacks, an overflow of techno-babble, and one incredibly unlikable guy into a quick, interesting two hours. My tech-un-savvy mom sometimes got lost in the time-jumping and non-stop jargon, but all of the dialog and plot made total sense to me.
If that was not hard enough, there was room for exploration into the dot-com generation, the simultaneous connectivity and isolation brought forth from computers, and how nerds become the jocks of their post-school world. It would be a travesty if Sorkin does not win for best writing.
On the acting front, I could totally see Jesse Eisenberg pull off an upset for best actor. With Sorkin's words and directions, Eisenberg tapped into something awesome. The level of nerdy detachment was absolutely on the mark with uber-geeks that I have met and seen. His mental, emotional, physical detachment was authentic, off-putting, and fascinating to watch. The rest of the cast was very good, especially Armie Hammer's double performance as the twins.
Two things bugged me horribly throughout the film, the sound mixing and lighting. Since this was my first time watching via Zune, I am not sure if these flaws were the fault of the film makers or my method of watching. Every scene appeared to be underexposed and completely dark. It was really difficult to see the characters faces, and my mom had trouble telling nerds apart.
As for the mixing, the dialog was too quiet. All the ambient noise and Reznor-ed score overpowered Sorkin's wonderful words, forcing me to either sacrifice hearing dialog clearly or blowing out my eardrums. It did not help that Trent Reznor's score was very distracting. This reminded me of when There Will be Blood hired a Radiohead member to do the score. In both instances, the composers made very interesting sounds, but their music completely muscled their way into the spotlight, when they should have been in a supporting role.
Aside from the visual and audio issues, this film was nearly flawless. Time will tell if The Social Network deserves the superlatives like "classic" and "defining". Personally, I just believe it was one masterfully written film by Sorkin sporting Eisenberg's haunting performance.
What I would change
Used a traditional composer.
