The Social Network

I admit it - I'm on Facebook. I started to keep in touch with my kids and don't consider myself a devotee; although I do check in daily and post occasionally and have... a few.... friends. Got back in touch with a few folks from high school, still keep up with the kids and have actually made some real live friends, as in the kind you genuinely care about, all on Facebook. So I was naturally curious to see the story behind the phenomenon. As stories go - The Social Network is entertaining; even fascinating from the perspective of how fast technology moves in our modern age. But as movies go, I have to say this is a one trick pony at best.

Not that Jesse Eisenberg doesn't work his butt off in a stilted, humorless genius kind of way. Mark Zuckerberg himself called the performance "interesting" in a stilted, humorless kind of way on SNL. Not that Justin Timberlake doesn't make you just hate on Sean Parker or that Andrew Garfield doesn't make you all squishy sad for poor undervalued Eduardo Saverin. The truth is that none of these people have anything that might be called a personality. Maybe that's true in real life, but it's certainly true in this movie. So aside from the events and their consequences, that Zuckerberg made an obscene amount of money in what may or may not have been a morally repugnant way, there isn't much in the way of movie. Which makes it kinda like Facebook.

I will go on the record as a lone wolf on this one; everyone else on the planet seems to think this film is Oscar worthy, it's won like a gazillion awards including Best Picture at the Globes, yadda, yadda, yadda. If you don't know the story, it's worth a viewing just to see what all the fuss is about. But I'm pretty sure you know the story, and the producers of this film are so sure about that that they don't even bother with a synopsis on the website. If you're looking for something about, I don't know, people with messy things like emotions, relationships or a conscience - look elsewhere.