What a Wild Ride!
This 2010 movie which I am reviewing before the 2010 Academy Awards is literally like being on a wild roller coaster ride, veering one way and then the other. For a 60 year old, I had to put on the subtitles just to keep up with the fast talking dialog of the script which was planned that way, I am sure. And it is a brilliant script by Aaron Sorkin, who won a Golden Globe, and brilliant direction by David Fincher, who also won the Golden Globe.
The plot, of course, is the story of Facebook, which has made Marc Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) a multi-billionaire in less than half a decade. In the first scenes, he is a revolting, insulting idiot with a girl, Erica Albright, that he is trying to date at Harvard in the early 2000s. He gets into trouble with the College when he writes a program comparing Erica's looks with another girl and then another girl with another girl and so on. But obviously his computer skills are off the chart.
Enter the Winkelvoss twins--Cameron and Tyler(Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), who enlist Marc to write the computer language for their idea of a program called the Harvard Connection, which is the origin of Facebook. Instead, Marc steals the idea, and with his only friend and roommate at Harvard, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his $1000 start the Facebook company. Success is at every corner, and the members grow. But there is no money because it doesn't cost anything to be a Facebook member. Advertising income is an idea, but Marc doesn't like it.
Enter Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who as the bankrupt executive of Napster, has all the connections to take the infant company to San Francisco and help it explode to what it is today with his banking and legal connections.
You have to see the movie to see how it all turns out. You can keep up with it if you completely concentrate without distractions on the rapid plot and conversations. It is also a good exposee of our legal system and how people can be tricked and sold out in Corporate America.
A second dvd in this package tells in detail how the movie was made--very interesting! We learn how Armie Hammer's face was sometimes superimposed on Josh Pence's body to make them look more like twins. We learn that Aaron Sorkin has a small part as a possible investor in Facebook. We learn how they controlled Eduardo's girlfriend when she lit a scarf causing a fire in his apartment while he was on an important call with Marc. And much, much more. In fact, it is more than you might want to know.Read full review
