“The Social Network” is about a mundane part of over 500 million peoples’ everyday life: Facebook. Everybody knows what Facebook is and what it does, so why would anyone spend their time and money watching a movie about it? Because that movie is brilliant.  David Fincher’s “The Social Network”, reveals the moment that Facebook was created, and the differing perspectives of all the young men who felt they were partly responsible for it. All of these founders of facebook are in the middle of a law suite for the billions of dollars Facebook is earning, and as they tell different sides of the story,  the truth unravels through a series of flashbacks.

The entire movie is one day of this enormous lawsuit. The lawyers, the prosecution, and the defendants sit in the conference room and go through the different claims made by either party in attempts to settle the dispute. As the claims are made and the characters explain themselves, we watch flashbacks that show what really happened. The flashbacks tell the story and display the friendships that once were, while the law suite brings us back to what is going on as a result and shows us where the characters are because of the decisions they have made. The movie closes at the end of this day of legal battles.

The filmmakers turned a movie about computer programming and social networking into an interesting film by delving into the drama and relationships that went on behind the scenes. Facebook’s billions of users never knew about it’s creator, this fact makes “The Social Network” so appealing. The movie seems unrealistic. A Harvard student has an idea to put college social life on the internet, millions of users join, and he becomes the youngest billionare in the world. As you’re watching the movie, it’s strange to think that all of the drama you’re seeing really happened as you were writing on your friends’ walls and updating your status. Somebody had to create Facebook, right? Now we are shown the different people who influenced and participated in the making of this social network that has changed society as we know it.

All of the people who contributed to Facebook have very unique personalities. Mark Zuckerberg is the computer programming genius who creates the website, while his former best friend, Eduardo Saverin, gives him the money to sponsor the company from the beginning. Jesse Eisenberg was a perfect choice for his role of Mark Zuckerberg and portrays his intelligence, wit, and sarcasm perfectly. The Winklevoss twins add comic relief to the plot as the privileged twin brothers who believe they came up with the idea for Facebook and are entitled to its earnings. Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, is the founder of Napster and a party animal who offers advice and guidance to Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg follows much of the advice Parker gives him and is put in a few difficult situations because of it.  Throughout the movie, the bond formed by these friends is torn as they become the worst of enemies, fighting over whom has the right to Facebook.  If the plot of the movie weren’t entertaining enough, the cast of characters could have kept the audience enthralled on their own.

“The Social Network” is intriguing to audiences because it appears to be true. All of the characters have their own story and point of view of the creation of Facebook. The good and bad sides of such success are shown through the law suit, and the major popularity Facebook has attained. With such success comes new friends, and new enemies. The movie was long, but it ended too quickly. It felt like the movie could continue until the end of the lawsuit so that the outcome could be seen, but instead we were told what happened next in text while we watched Zuckerberg use his own website. Throughout the movie, it is unclear who to root for. It is difficult to pick a side without changing and it is undecided who to sympathize with, cheer for, or dislike. While watching “The Social Network”, one can not help but be stunned by how easily millions of dollars can tear apart friendships.  “The Social Network” is a true, entertaining story about the making of something 500 million people use everyday.

Ironic as it is, Zuckerberg does not have functional friendships in the movie. He creates a social network that helps friends connect with one another and make new friends, while he ruins the few friendships he had while doing so. There is a very dark tone to the movie, showing Fincher’s true feelings about social networking. He appears to believe Facebook is separating people more than connecting them. By being friends on the computer, people are losing social skills that were once crucial. Now, it is easy to send a text, or inbox, without showing emotion or having any human interaction at all.  People spend less face time with one another, but instead spend their time on social networking sites to keep contact with each other. Zuckerberg creates a site to help people make friends and stay connected, while ironically Fincher suggests this site tears him apart from the only friends he had in his life.