Plot
The movie starts with Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) getting dumped by his girlfriend in a college bar. We see him crossing the Harvard Campus, running to his dorm. There, while writing on his blog, he compares his ex-girlfriend to farmyard animals. A comparison that gives him the idea to make www.facemash.com. The same evening, Zuckerberg hacks some university houses’s databases and downloads pictures of female students from the college facebooks. With an algorithm written by his friend Eduardo Saverin, he puts two pictures of two girls next to each other. The idea is to indicate which girl is hotter. The link to the website is passed on from student to student with a viral effect. The impact is immediate, the Harvard network crashes and Zuckerberg is summoned to the university board. At this point the movie's megalomaniac (unintentional or not?) and slightly autistic characterization of Zuckerberg is developed.
When the Harvard Crimson, the university newsletter writes about the event, Zuckerberg is contacted by three guys (the twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – both played by Armie Hammer – and their associate Narendra) who ask for his help to develop a new website called Harvard Connection. Mark agrees to help. Soon afterwards, Zuckerberg tells his friend Saverin he has an idea which he calls Thefacebook, an online social network site for which only Harvard students can sign in. The website becomes extremely popular among the entire university and soon spreads over the entire country and even other continents.
The events are intertwined with scenes from two lawsuits. One filed by the three guys who came up with the Harvard Connection idea and the other by Saverin. While the story continues, we can see Saverin trying to look for investors and finding a way to make money from the website. In the meantime, Zuckerberg is contacted by Napster co-founder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) who immediately impresses the kid with his history and visionary enthusiasm. The plot develops and after Saverin blocks the company’s account (suspicious about Parker’s personality and angry about him making business decisions) an angel investment is secured. After Saverin signs some papers without reading them, his share in the Facebook stocks is watered down to almost nothing. At the end of the movie, it is described how the Winklevosses, Narenda and Saverin are compensated.
Review
Although the movie is much talked about and critically acclaimed, I find the storyline to be quite boring. The movie is simply to long, causing it to lose attention. Nevertheless, the movie has the great visual character and dark atmosphere which are typical for director David Fincher. Also, the movie is filled with fine performances – maybe except for Justin Timberlake, putting down a somewhat too black and white character. Or maybe this is just me, hating ex-boysband members.
Also, we can ask questions about the biographical facts in the movie. Although Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires”, no Facebook staff or employees, and certainly not any of the founders were involved with creating the movie. I think Jesse Eisenberg’s rather tendentious and subjective Zuckerberg character is somewhat exaggerated.
Maybe not intended by the movie directors, and certainly not by Mezrich, is my conclusion of the movie: even though Zuckerberg and Co. did became billionaires on a young age, they certainly did not by accident. Even if the idea was stolen, Facebook is one of the greatest phenomena of our time and inspired thousands to create similar social networks. But best of all: it showed that young people can become extremely rich by being creative.
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