subject: Story of Facebook makes for frenetic entertainment [print this page] He then instantly creates a campus mlb jerseys database where guys can compare pictures of two female students and choose which is "hotter'' an idea that eventually morphs into Facebook.
So that's why Facebook was created: to get revenge and stare at sexy girls.
Or maybe not. In "The Social Network,'' a frenetically entertaining film that re-enacts the birth of Zuckerberg's immensely popular NFL jersey website, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher tell the story from three different and often contradictory points of view.
The first comes from Zuckerberg (East Brunswick's Jesse Eisenberg), the brash computer genius who launched the website at Harvard in 2004 with Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and two other classmates.
Saverin offers another perspective, that of a scorned friend who provided the company's early financing and then was squeezed out. Offering a third vantage point are the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), Bunyonesque preppie Harvard rowers who claim that Zuckerberg stole the Facebook idea from them.
Brilliant bully
Saverin and the Winklevoss brothers filed lawsuits against Zuckerberg that resulted in settlements. The film uses those legal proceedings Zuckerberg, Saverin and the twins are shown in a conference room giving depositions in the cases to reconstruct Facebook's beginnings from their overlapping, often undermining testimony. It can get confusing, but it effectively shows how the truth can be elusive when so much is at stake.
Zuckerberg is reportedly angry over his portrayal in the movie and it's easy to understand why. Though none of the major characters appears very likable, his image takes the biggest hit. He comes across as an arrogant bully with horrible
social skills who is willing to sacrifice his few friends in the rush to build his company.
Eisenberg, the curly haired actor who played angst-ridden adolescents in "The Squid and the Whale'' and "Adventureland,'' skillfully reveals the insecurity and relentless drive that fueled Zuckerberg's success. (In the movie, he's jealous of Saverin for getting into one of Harvard's exclusive social mlb jerseysclubs.)
Story of Facebook makes for frenetic entertainment
