How did a man with decidedly ropey social skills manage to create the biggest social website in the world? So asks The Social Network. Well, sort of. The question is there in amongst an examination of ideas (as in: at what stage does an idea become something more concrete, that can be owned and thus monetised, rather than ‘an examination of ideas’ being my impressively vague description of the film)… I seem to have lost my train of thought. This is the challenge of being part of the facebook generation - I don’t even have the attention span for music videos. 3 minutes? No, no, far too long. I can’t manage to concentrate for the length of a sentence.
I did actually manage to concentrate for the whole of The Social Network, thanks to Aaron Sorkin’s clever script in which everyone is engaging, but no-one comes across especially favourably, and David Fincher’s masterly direction. His manipulation of depth of field speaks volumes: in scenes of conversation Mark Zuckerberg is often the only object on screen in focus, subtly but pointedly conveying, if not exactly his self-interest, his obvious lack of interest in what anyone else has to say.
This is a remarkable story, remarkably well told.
A couple of points of interest:
-It has what I consider to be one of the most realistic nightclub scene ever seen on screen. I really liked the fact I had to strain my ears to hear the conversation over the music.
-The Winklevoss twins are played by the same person, by way of computer wizardry (much like the other technical term, 'computer trickery', but even more cleverer). I saw the film before I knew this, and didn’t notice at all. Things have changed since Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap. Now that’s a good film. I wonder if Hayley Mills has a facebook page… What was I writing about…?
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