On paper, a story about making a website seems like an unlikely topic for the movies. But in the same way that courtroom dramas can turn the dry surroundings of the court into a scene of human drama, The Social Network realises the creation of Facebook as a morality tale, about friendship, power and the struggle for belonging.
Mark Zuckerberg, the genius behind the global Facebook phenomenon, isn’t painted in a flattering light: this isn’t a hagiography to the founder of modern social media. Instead we see a portrait of a young man who, whilst struggling to make real friends, invents a way to make millions of virtual ones.
It’s a terrific movie that doesn’t need you to be a computer genius, or even a Facebook user, to enjoy it. David Fincher continues to be one of the most stylish directors around, and the young and relatively unknown (bar the surprisingly good Justin Timberlake) cast are excellent. This is a ‘like’.