Monday’s Movie Musings; The Social Network (2010)

Monday’s Movie Musings is a new feature here at A Daydreamer’s Thoughts. The idea of this feature is to have all of my movie things occuring in one place. Whether it is a review, article, or something else, this feature will just be all about movies.

This week I have for you all a review of The Social Network

Directed By: David Fincher
Adapted By: Aaron Sorkin
Book Written By: Ben Mezrich
Production Company: Columbia Pictures
Main Cast: Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield & Justin Timberlake
Format: DVD
Add It: IMDB

Summary:
(From IMDB) Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking website that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.

Initial Thoughts

This was a film that I meant to watch many years ago when it first came into cinemas and my friends told me that it was a good film that I should definitely make sure that I see. But, as so often happens, I just never found the time to actually get around to watching it, until now. So I sat down ready to watch a film that may just blow my mind and keep my interest and just really make me revel in amazing film-making, but for me, this film fell flat in many places. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and I’m glad I watched it, but it wasn’t the spectacular film that I had been expecting and because of that I just found myself disappointed in the film. I wanted it to be so much more than it was, and this is why I really do try to watch things with an open mind.

Plot

With the world suddenly revolving around social media sites, like Facebook, and all of the lawsuits and terrible things that occured to Facebook, it seemed like there was a possible market for a film about the creation of this website but perhaps it was the kind of film you had to watch as it was released. For me, the plot just felt long, irritating, and I quite quickly grew bored of what was happening on the screen. There were too many instances of long dialogue and then moments of cut-up dialogue, and choppy scenes that threw me off kilter slightly. It was easy to see what the director was trying to do, but it just didn’t work for me personally. I found it too difficult to keep my attention peeled on the screen and when it finally ended I just sat staring at the credits wondering if that was really all there was to the film. I just felt that there needed to be something more.

Acting

It was the performances of the actors in the film that vaguely held my attention in this film. Or, namely, I was struck by the talent of Andrew Garfield. You could feel the emotions of this character really come out and he just managed to take this character on his shoulders and really act convincingly. I found myself emotionally invested in his character and wanted to just help him out. As for Jesse Eisenberg, I feel that while he did a good job of portraying his character, I struggled to enjoy the performance because I couldn’t stand his character. I guess the whole point was that this guy was not a good guy, he was this jerkoff but by the end of it you see this other part of him underneath but even I wasn’t convinced to feel anything for him by the end and this was just another thing that put me wholly off the film. If Jesse really was aiming for a performance that led to no sympathy then he did one hell of an amazing job.

Editing

As mentioned above, the editing of the film was choppy and distorted. It jumped from flashback to present too quickly, and then there were not one but two court cases to try and get your head around. It was too much as there just wasn’t enough time to really absorb any of the information which made it difficult to fully enjoy the film. I also feel that this was, in large part, due to the script which, while detailed and full, just didn’t seem to work right for a film. I feel that this would have made a very interesting television programme which would have given it time to truly develop but really it just felt rushed – even to the point that Jesse’s lines were said incredibly quickly leaving the audience gaping and wondering what had actually just happened/been said. While it is possible that this script, pace, and editing worked for some audience members, I found that it really just didn’t sit right for me.

Conclusion

All in all, this film simply wasn’t right for me. I found it difficult to really get sucked into and found that I was really only watching it because it was there. It wasn’t enough to make me fall asleep or turn the film off as it did have its moments of greatness – such as one of the final scenes with Andrew Garfield – and a few other scenes that kept me interested, but overall it just wasn’t a big hitter for me. I do know that the critics have enjoyed it and that my friends also have but I just couldn’t see exactly what it was that captured all of their attention. If you’re looking for a movie that you may only ever see once, this is the one to choose. I’m glad I got around to finally watching it, just disappointed that it wasn’t the film I had been hoping it would be.

Have you seen this film yet? What are your thoughts? Or, if you haven’t seen the film, will you?