The Social Network

[WriteNow]

I finally saw this film a fews days ago and absolutely loved it. David Fincher is always one to watch, though he often loses the battle between style/substance.

Not here. Very restrained film making, even if it looks like every shot took a week to set up. The whole movie is gorgeous, really impressive. The most amazing thing though was that the movie was about something I have ZERO interest in (Facebook), starring an actor I don't much like (Jesse Eisenberg) yet it turns out to be a riveting film.

But what about the writing?

The movie is ALL dialogue. There is one boat racing sequence, but that is the only "action" in the film. Most of it is people sitting at a table talking, or typing on computers and talking. It was written by veteran writer Aaron Sorkin, who's got too many credits to list, and it just "feels" pro. High-powered lawyers talk like (you would think) they should, while rich, spoiled Harvard kids speak just as you would expect and it all just feels right.

The plots points all click off nicely for awhile, until a slightly oddly-paced third act reminds us that nobody's perfect. Still, watching people talk for two hours will never go by so fast. The dialogue is just about perfect "fake/real" movie talk. That is, people don't talk like they do in real life (no one's that clever or has such perfect comic timing) but they don't sound like they are reciting "lines" either. It almost feels like a play, actually. Everyone gets they're little monologue.

So- what did you guys think? Let's get a discussion going. Even though we should mainly stick to the writing aspects of the film, what did you guys think overall? Was is good/bad? Why? Anything stand out?

[marc]

I agree 100% WriteNow. I'm on the opposite side of the coin as you, being a heavy Facebook user for nearly 5 years, knowing the details of how Facebook came to be, and working at a web startup myself. Not surprisingly I think the major plot events and general dialogue were overly dramatic when compared to the actual events, but it made for a really dynamic and riveting experience.

As you so aptly put it, watching people talk for two hours never went by so fast.