Mark Zuckerberg. Certainly a name you will not be familiar with, if you – still– have not entered and read up on the intriguing world of Facebook.com. And even then. We all use it, we all know it, but do we know the story behind Facebook?

The Social Network is a drama film on the founding of the Internet social networking website, based on the true story of its developer Mark Zuckerberg and his friends – or rather business partners. And yet, not even one facebook employee was involved in the making of this movie, which appeals to us as quite a bit extraordinary. How could a movie externalise the internal operation of a one billion dollar company without even consulting the outcome with the people who are dealing with it? How can a name as 'Mark Zuckerberg' be used freely, besmeared even, whilst willing to hand the onlookers an insight upon the network of which he was, and still is, founder?

These questions remain unveiled and unsolved, spinning through our heads as children willing to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. In any way we were glad to see a Justin Timberlake who was intentionally screened to look ugly and uncool. This did not, however, prevent him from trying to steal the show and acting out his role in an overly confident and obnoxious manner, by which he still appealed to a (fe)male audience. Wisely said, Justin still earned women-points – our feminine variation of the so-called 'man-points': men who look ugly that still get to hang out with the cool kids.

We are even more intrigued by the fact that only the formerly friend and later business partner of Mark, Eduardo Saverin, was a consultant for Mezrich's story The Accidental Billionaires, a 2009 non-fiction book from which Aaron Sorkin adapted his screenplay. So, the only person being asked to cooperate in a truth-based film was the one being cheated on and let down by his best friend. How neutral can be such a story?

All in all, we loved watching the movie, but one could not enter the movie complex all ready-stead and loaded with expectations. Go, enjoy yourself, switch off your 'I like' button and get a little hang of the Facebook-code. Then, only then, the movie will be an experience you will look back on smiling. Or that could be a Justin Timberlake, reason for our smiling faces: the world of nerds now has a new king... but he will rule alone! |