For weeks now, I have been successfully avoiding watching this movie as I do any other that goes through such a promotional hype. However, ever since it got a couple of Golden Globe nominations I started thinking, hell, I could do worse. Sure, we all know the story and granted, we couldn’t care less about it. The whole point is not how Facebook got started or why, but who was the biggest asshole during its creation.
The moment the movie starts rolling, you know it’s Zuckerberg. I am not sure if the real Mark is as annoying as this Jesse Eisenberg kid who portrays him or if Jesse is so horrifyingly irritating all on his own. At some point you kind of loose the whole Mark/Jesse thing and just start seriously hating the entity on its own.
There’s nothing cute about this movie, the script is trying too hard to be intellectual and the first 10 minutes of a dialogue between Zuckerberg and his soon-to-be ex girlfriend are painful to listen to, not to mention watch. I read somewhere somebody’s criticism that Mark appears to be, at least in this movie, an Asperger’s syndrome type of a guy. That description is spot on. He does have a certain aura of being an insensitive son of a bitch.
The only character you can actually sympathize with is the one who gets royally screwed over by his friendship with Zuckerberg – the naïve, at times too gullible co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield). I am not familiar with Garfield whatsoever but it is safe to say that he was good (and in a mediocre surrounding that’s not so hard to be).
Fincher as a director used to be a figure, now he’s….well….blah – the only word I can use at the moment since mediocre has already been inserted into my previous paragraph and it’s all about diversity in reviewing. I vaguely remember him being better than this but, hey, memories are often not very reliable. One sees what one wants to see.
On a brighter note, whoever told Justin Timberlake that he can act did us all a favor – watching him was hilarious. Please make lots and lots and lots of movies, Justin, so I can spend my lifetime trashing you. Apparently, your music is not enough of a torture for all of us.
So, let’s put it this way: the movie is 2 hours long yet I spent 5 hours watching it (perks of being able to click on a pause button). In other words, it’s as boring as a white wall with no paintings on it. The Golden Globes and Oscars? Well, they did give it to Shakespeare in Love so shit like that happens.
All in all, 5 out of 10.
