Your best friend is suing you...for 600 million dollars

I must admit....the first time I saw the trailer of The Social Network, I was skeptical. I couldnt understand why Hollywood had decided to screw up the story of the founding of one of the biggest phenomenon of our times. I was sure the movie would be over-simplified, over-dramatized, and basically moronic, and the understated promo did nothing to change that. Having dismissed the movie, I moved on with life, and it was only today, the day the movie premiers, that the media coverage caught my attention - for some reason, everyone was talking about the movie. And not just because its a movie about Facebook but because its a good, (according to some, great!) movie about Facebook! That was so unexpected and totally unforeseen and 12 hours later, I was at the cinemas, with a bunch of friends, waiting for the saga to unfold, curious about how interesting and binding a movie about coders could be. And boy! Was I wrong or what! The Social Network is probably the best movie out of Hollywood this year....and yes! This is indeed the year when soon-to-be cults like Inception, Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me have enchanted audiences worldwide!

Director David Fincher, whose last effort - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - was a cosmetic bore, has done a fabulous job by extracting some noteworthy performances from the entire cast, and that is no mean feat considering the cast comprises of Justin Timberlake! Jesse Eisenberg is brilliant as Mark Zuckerberg, resembling the youngest billionaire in the world in look and (reportedly) mannerisms perfectly. Andrew Garfield as Eduardo is excellent and lends a load of credibility to the frames he is present in. Armie Hammer packs a sucker punch in dual roles of the Winklevoss twins, while Justin Timberlake takes you by surprise completely with his flamboyant, genius-bordering-on-self-destruction portrayal of that shrewd wolf Sean Parker, who not only gave the world Napster and Plaxo, but was also instrumental in making Facebook the phenomenon that it is today. But the real star of the movie is undoubtedly screenplay writer Aaron Sorkin, who creates such a spellbinding script full of energetic and relatable dialogue, it elevates the movie to an altogether different level. The background score deserves special mention for lending a lot of emotion and feel to the proceedings.

The movie is a part-fiction, part-real portrayal of the rise of Facebook, and while which parts are more real than others is debatable, herein lies a tale that catalogs the conceptualization and implementation of one of the most influential ideas of our generation. More importantly, it is a study in human psyche and the fact that, while you cant stop admiring Zuck for his spirited and almost single-handed launch of Facebook, at the same time, you cannot forgive him for being so influenced by Parker and being unfair to his best friend and business partner Eduardo, shows how well the character has been etched. Above all, the movie is an inspiration and a warning for budding entrepreneurs, who have dreams of making it big but can oversee friendships in the process. Although the movie paints Zuck as an a-hole and shows how inept he is/was at social relationships (while ironically building a social networking website!) , I found something ultimately inspiring in the way he went about his business. True - his motive was wrong, his conduct too, his maturity was virtually non-existent and he didnt get chicks or entry to the elite clubs, but in the end, he succeeded in building his vision and preserving it without giving in to the demands of others.

There's something to learn and a lot to observe in The Social Network. All wannabe entrepreneurs, all CS people, all Facebook users and all movie lovers, go watch the movie...NOW!

P.S. : Oh! and Aaron Sorkin FTW \m/ If they dont give him the Best Adapted Screenplay this year, the Oscars will just become another Filmfare for me.