The Social Network – movie review

The Social Network is about the Mark Zuckerberg who created the ever popular Facebook, which goes into detail about his friendships, business and even his personal life. It starts out with the prototype of Facebook and slowly goes into the modern day Facebook with all of the growing pains, broken friendships, and legal issues that led to today’s Facebook.  The film goes back and forth between the past and the time of his lawsuits. So at first you may find yourself confused, but once you catch on to the basic scenarios you will begin to follow the story better.

The Social Network is not exactly a family friendly movie for the whole family to see, even if it does have a Disney star in it. Yet the movie does give off a good message that no matter how popular or rich you become, your life can still be full of issues. Examples include Mark being sued twice by two of his former classmates and one of his business partners getting arrested and causing Facebook a large amount of embarrassment. In the end, you will still have to live with yourself, and being rich does not make your life any easier–which is a good message to get across in this society. 

Characterwise, the film did not have much of Brenda Song’s character Christy Lee at all. She was brought into the movie halfway through and had a very small role in the story. I will add that I was amazed that she was able to pull off an out-of-norm role for her, which she played in a very real-life-like way. It was a bit of a shock to see a Disney darling to play a daring role. All of the characters acted like typical college-aged kids, and most of the actors pulled that off well. I will say that Mark and Eduardo were the two strongest characters out of the whole film. I do think that Christy should have had a larger part, even if she really did not have a whole lot to do in the creation of Facebook.

The movie itself was good for teens and adults, though a lot of the party scenes are not really suitable for kids. I do think that they used them in context well, and they did add drama to the movie–but many parents will not want their young kids to see partying in a film. On the bright side, I do not remember any other parts in the movie that could be considered “bad”–except for the hacking part.

The Social Network was performed in a very realistic way, and that is something that most modern movies seem to miss altogether. All of the actors–including former *Nsync member Justin Timberlake and, of course, Brenda Song–held to each of their own. No one stole scenes or played their role as if it was just a role. In fact, I almost felt as if I was watching the story unfold as it did in real life. That is very hard for any cast or a director to pull off, yet The Social Network was able to do just that. If you did not know any better, you might think it was a documentary.

Again, the fact that Brenda Song is in the movie does not mean it would be a good movie for young kids or even tweens to watch. I think this movie is better suited for age 16 and above, since most of it focuses on college-aged kids and their lifestyle. The biggest reason I say that is the simple fact that kids may not understand why it is wrong to hack or party a lot, or they may even find themselves bored by the business side of the film. However, I do think most old enough people will enjoy the film and to see really what was behind this huge social network. This is one of my current favorite movies.  I would definitely see it again and I will likely even buy the DVD when it comes out. Would I recommend families to see it? No, I think that it is better off for older teens and adults to see it. What would be my rating for it out of 1 through 10? I would give it a solid 9, just solely based on how well it turned out.

Image Source-Ace Show Biz