Credit also has to be given to Fincher’s direction of the film’s cast (more on them in a moment) with his skill somehow managing to bring out the very best possible performance from every actor, even those in the what are fairly short roles. The brilliant direction of the cast is more than likely due to perhaps tyrannical way that Fincher directs his actors, often demanding them to perform a gruelling (and almost Kubrickian) number of takes until he is 100% satisfied that he has got the best he can out of them (or until they pass out from exhaustion.)
Case in point, the film’s dialogue-heavy scene allegedly took a frightening (and frankly monstrous) 99 takes to film, which for a scene filled to the gills with complicated rapid-fire dialogue must have been a massive ache up the back pipe to film.
Despite his approach perhaps coming across as a tad overbearing, Fincher’s direction pays dividends when you consider the performances he gets from his actors. I wasn’t kidding when I said that everyone in this film is brilliant and while I would love to go through every performance and heap praise upon them from the lead role to even the smaller ones (Rooney Mara is only in a handful of scenes but damn is she good), to do so would render this review absurdly longer than it is already.
So let’s just focus on the character who, arguably, holds the entire film together, that of Mark Zuckerberg.
As Zuckerberg, Jesse Eisenberg gives arguably his best performance to date, portraying the young billionaire as a brilliant mind, yet one that is emotionally immature, callous, cold, and utterly obsessed with being the smartest man in the room and making damn sure everyone knows it. Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg is a dark and often unpleasant one, with his every utterance being delivered with such arrogance and venom that it left me feeling genuine feelings of hatred towards Zuckerberg by the time the final credits roll. It’s a phenomenal and complex portrayal of a man who, like him or loathe him, is one of the most important people of our era, and because of it I honestly think (and apologies to Colin Firth) that it Eisenberg should have been won as the Oscar for Best Actor.
Of course, going into a film based on fairly recent history (Facebook is only a little over 10 years old at the time of writing) and with the various legal battles that arose from Facebook’s founding, the historical accuracy has been subject to heavy scrutiny. Zuckerberg himself has been very vocal about his anger about the film and his portrayal in the film (with such a villainous portrayal can you blame him), as have others portrayed in the film who dispute pretty much everything depicted.
So if you want the 100% accurate tale of Facebook’s founding, maybe watch a documentary or read the myriad of books written about it. However, if you don’t mind what is a probably heavily fictionalised portrayal behind the founding of one of the internet ages most controversial entities then The Social Network is the film for you.
Buoyed by a witty script, superb direction and outstanding performances across the board, The Social Network is quite simply one of the greatest films of the 2010s and it’s my pick as the film that should have been named as Best Picture of 2010.
What films you think should have been named Best Picture by the Academy but, for whatever reason, didn’t? And among the films being honoured at Sunday’s ceremony, what film do you think should take home the top prize?
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments and also feel free to follow me on Twitter via Graeme Robertson@robertsong93.
