The River Green

“A History of Facebook” or “How Zuckerberg Betrayed His Only Friend,” might be suitable alternate titles for this film. Marieke said, almost from the beginning, that it was compelling. That is definitely an accurate summation.

In the first scene, the founder of Facebook is portrayed as having some social oddities, but as the movie progresses, he is also incredibly aware of the interactions of others and how impactful social situations can be. It is almost as if Sorkin wanted Zuckerberg to be depicted as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is in the same breath socially skillful by organizing coding competitions, but then socially awkward and inept at communicating in person with other people. He seems altogether capable of starting a business and being able to run the business successfully, but is also portrayed as needing the input of Timberlake’s character in order to lift the business toward success.

The character is a contradiction, but the story is, as most modern biographies, a caricature of the actual person or events. Sadly, this common practice relies too heavily on dramatic license and not enough on facts. This isn’t to say that there aren’t facts in this movie, but I am left with the impression that Zuckerberg is probably not the socially inept, betrayer of friends that Sorkin puts forth. Nor is he probably a model programmer. I’m happy to leave the movie with a composite image of how Facebook came to be and who Zuckerberg really is.

Some of the more interesting facts that surround the creation of Facebook is mention of ‘Hollywood Stars,’ which is a reference to Natalie Portman, who revolved in some of the same circles as the Winklevoss twins. It has been said that the girl that Zuckerberg pines for in the film is, in fact, Portman. Obviously, such an element would require certain facts to be validated.

I rather enjoyed ‘remembering’ certain aspects of the development of Facebook as a social networking site. It is still quite amazing just how quickly a website can move to not only change, but define the social network.

Labels: movies