The Social Network: Irony Served Cold

After hearing a number of good reviews of The Social Network, and finding no one available to see the movie with, I embarked on my first solo movie-going experience in awhile. The few times in the past when I’ve gone alone, I was excruciatingly aware of my solitude – perhaps because part of my reasons for going out were to get away from the unwanted solitude of my apartment only to find myself even more alone among strangers. This time however, I was comfortable. I wasn’t there for social reasons, but to satisfy my movie-cravings. I had brought a book for those awkward moments before the lights dimmed but they were already too dim by the time I was seated. I do despise the bombardment of commercials that is forced upon the movie going public these days – it feels so manipulative – but I simply closed my eyes and thought of other things.

As I left the theatre, I mused about the allure of such stories (the place was  packed). I suppose it is the same fascination that sells People magazine (and so many others): the fascination with the rich and famous. We are envious and in awe and our envy loves nothing better than to find out that even the rich and famous have flaws. Well, Mark Zuckerberg definitely has flaws and the movie’s intent is that we see them in all their ugliness. Not that I disliked the movie, I didn’t. It was interesting – yes, I too was sucked into the fast paced story line – and some of the dialogue was rather witty. I thought the acting was well-done, especially by Jesse Eisenberg (Mark) and Andrew Garfield (Mark’s best friend).

In a nutshell, the movie tells the story of how Zuckerberg, a social outcast at Harvard, manipulates people as adeptly as computer code to create Facebook. The story is told with flashbacks (or flashforwards, I can’t remember which came first) between the creation of Facebook and the lawsuits stemming from it. For the most part the action is clear and the plotline intriguing, but there were a few threads that seemed to go nowhere (unless I missed something). There is an allusion to “high priced call girls” being hired to sabatoge them and the woman in the scene looks suddenly guilty (she has thrown herself at the two entrepeneurs) but nothing comes of it. Then there is a small foray into the same girl turning “psycho” as the control-freak girlfriend near the end of the story. It was unclear to me what purpose this served. Unless it was to underscore the utter futility of a web site to lead people into relationships of any depth at all. In fact the relationships in this movie are all dysfunctional at best. Highlighted by Zuckerberg who cluelessly insults his date at the beginning of the movie, the story is fraught with scenes of people using others, shallow, sexually-fueled encounters, and the snobbery of rich versus not-rich. If this was the film makers intent, the movie is a success.

In a clearly “staged” metaphoric moment, the film ends with the friendless Zuckerberg waiting to be “friended” by the aforementioned date (the woman he apparently still harbors feelings for and who has moved on). The irony is not subtle. The man who turned the word “friend” into a verb worldwide has gained wealth but not friends. The even sadder irony is that no doubt millions in the viewing audience would trade places with him in an instant if given the chance.