Whether you use Facebook everyday, once a week, or stopped months ago (I put myself in the last category), you will still be hooked on the true story of how Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg in his most natural role so far) created one of the most successful companies in history.
Yet The Social Network, is not so much about how Zuckerberg started Facebook but if he started Facebook.
The case made by former/fellow-Harvard students, the Winkelvoss twins (both roles played by Armie Hammer) is presented fairly enough to create some doubt about how just a 20-year-old could have achieved what only 1,010 other people currently living on this planet have done.
In many ways Zuckerberg is deliberately set up as a straw man. His savant-like lack of social skills, the notable absence of a girlfriend, or any friend seem designed to instill a dislike or even fear of what Facebook represents. Like a surgeon sees a body on an operating table as just another object, Zuckerberg sees friends as a thing to connect with one another.
While the pros and cons of social networking websites are not the focus of the movie, you do go away with a definite sense that the person who came up with the idea of Facebook is not someone you would necessarily want to be friends with.
*** 3 stars out of 5
