The Social Network–a movie released October 1, 2010–is the story of how Mark Zuckerberg, the owner and co-founder of Facebook, came to create the massive multi-billion dollar online enterprise that it is today.
But it’s much more than that. It’s about the dynamic between Mark and his friend and roommate, and later to be Facebook co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz. It’s a story of college experiences, of friendship and betrayal, of the vicious battle for business success and power, and of romance.
This film was an inspiring and exciting account of how success can be achieved early in life (for Mark, it really started when he was still in high school.) There was also an interesting subplot revealing the dynamic between Mark and the girl he was dating–who basically stopped dating him–before he created Facebook–because he was a jerk.
In the last scene of the film, right after a lady member of his legal council team tells Mark he does great at trying very hard to be a jerk, Mark asks if he might stay to use their laptop computer for a while. He’s alone with the computer, staring at his ex-girlfriend’s photo on Facebook. He hits “friend request,” stares at the screen for several seconds, unmoving, before hitting “submit” on the friend request. You can feel his fear as he wonders silently if his ex will accept his request, or ignore it–which is just what happens when you submit a friend request.
The Social Network is not the kind of film I normally go to see. It’s not action-packed, or fun, nor does it have amazing special effects, or fam0us stars. But it does have an excellent plot, full of detail that feels absolutely authentic. It’s interesting, and exciting, and funny in a lot of places. And I’m really glad I went.
A word to parents with children: there are some scenes that are not appropriate for kids or youth, such as images of underage kids drinking, lesbians kissing, and drug use.