"The Social Network" makes true story riveting

A major difficulty of basing films on true stories is presenting what happened in an unbiased fashion, while making the story feel important. Many films "based on true stories" have been known to blatantly alter facts to achieve a more interesting plot presentation, or fail to give the audience a reason to care about the tale being told. Fortunately, "The Social Network" avoids such downfalls by crafting a film that presents people in a realistic fashion, as well as covering a topic relevant to many people worldwide.

Telling the story of the founding of the social networking site Facebook, the film features Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. "The Social Network" plot covers the events leading up to the founding of Facebook, and also discusses the 2007-2008 lawsuits related to Zuckerberg's alleged intellectual property theft for the site of ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) and co-creator Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield).

An immediate plus of the film is the relevance of its subject matter. As a user of Facebook myself, the movie already had my attention if only out of curiosity for how such a popular network achieved mass popularity. The nonlinear direction of the movie keeps the audience on their toes and prevents an interesting story from becoming boring. The movie has a feel similar to a "rise and fall" type of storyline, with the fall aspect based more around the character relationships than the creation itself.

Such a film would not work without a proper cast, and this is inarguably the strongest element of the film. Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Zuckerberg is one of the greatest performances I have seen this year. He convincingly presents himself as a very arrogant and self-centered, yet calculating individual, saved from being unlikable only by the hilarity that his antics cause. Andrew Garfield also gives a commendable performance as Zuckerberg's good friend Saverin, whose patience is slowly being stretched thin. The solid ensemble cast of the movie already had excellent chemistry, and under the direction of the talented David Fincher, of "Fight Club" fame, they each contributed to making this one of the best-acted dramas I have seen all year.

Several points in the middle of the movie seemed to drag things out a little, and made the end of the film seem rather abrupt. The point chosen to end the movie seemed like an odd choice, however, it did not by any means diminish what I found overall to be a textbook example of how to depict true events in film, while staying neutral as to who the audience should cheer for. In that respect, as well as having a well-told and beautifully shot story, I cannot recommend "The Social Network" enough.