The Social Network

JETHRO'S NOTE: The review here is in the form of a conversation with an animal buddy named Vance (a bull).

VANCE: Why are we talking about Facebook?

ME: Because the film we’re reviewing, The Social Network, is about Facebook!

VANCE: Who’d wanna watch that?

ME: Who’d watch a film called The Accidental Billionaires, the book that the writer, Aaron Sorkin used to make this film along with the director, David Fincher? Huh?

VANCE: Ok, fair enough.

ME: So, Facebook was started by an egomaniac named Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg), miffed that his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) broke up with him. Anyway, after his prototype Facebook, Facemash, crashed Harvard’s servers, these dudes named Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) ask him to help them make a social networking site for Harvard “creatively” called Harvard Connection.

VANCE: I saw this film, too. You don’t need to tell me.

ME: I’m telling them…Anyway, Zuckerberg and his buddy Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) take the Harvard Connection idea, make it their own, and call it THE Facebook. And then…

VANCE: AND THEN, they make it into a global empire with the help of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the creator of Napster, as their financial adviser. And with no help from the Winklevoss guys, and their buddy Narendra (Max Minghella), who decide to sue them for stealing their idea.

ME: What works with this film? Quite a lot. Eisenberg makes quite an effective egomaniac forcibly brought down to Earth. Timberlake is quite the scene stealer as Parker, and Garfield is also great too. This cast should win the SAG Award.

VANCE: Wait…why’d you list Armie Hammer as both Winklevoss brothers?

ME: Because he is both Winklevoss guys. With stand-in Josh Pence and the same effects that David Fincher used with Benjamin Button, Hammer is in the scene twice over and you don’t notice it until someone tells you.

VANCE: ….

ME: I know. That just helps makes The Social Network cement itself as one of the best films of this fall’s Oscar season. I don’t know about the year, I’m still in the liking for Scott Pilgrim.

VANCE: Don't know why you invited me to co-review if you're hogging it all. Grr...