There’s no denying that David Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, Jesse Eisenberg and the rest of the cast of his upcoming drama, “The Social Network” has an immense degree of empathy for Mark Zuckerberg, so those expecting an intense vilification of the founder and CEO of Facebook — accused of stealing the idea from his co-founders and other Harvard grads who had enlisted his help for a similar idea — best think again. While the picture does cast the Aspergers-like social media creator in an unflattering light, it’s not simply an excoriating one and the picture shares several character textures and perspectives.
“[Saying Zuckerberg] is an asshole is such a reductive overly simplistic way [of looking at it.],” Fincher said in today’s post-New York Film Festival press screening Q&A about his latest which arrives in theaters October 1.
In fact, Fincher openly sympathizes with the anti-hero of the film played by a tremendous Jesse Eisenberg, finally playing against his nerdy neurotic type. “I have no qualms in saying that I think Eduardo Saverin [Andrew Garfield’s character] had a failure of imagination and at some point there was going to be a fork in the road for those two guys,” Fincher said about the two Facebook partners who part ways acrimoniously in the film.
Eisenberg concurred that his rendering of the damaged and dysfunctional Zuckerberg is one rooted in the character’s own insecurities and failures and wasn’t simply a one-note villain. “My main responsibility was to not only understand where my character was coming from but to be able to defend all his positions and behavior and ultimately sympathize with him. Over the course of the movie and this publicity [tour] I’ve developed even a greater affection for my character.”
However those expecting a film about Facebook (or hoping to hate a film about Facebook) itself should also ready themselves, and or put their knives away. Justin Timberlake does not play Myspace in guyliner and Fincher’s eighth feature-length film is more of a courtroom procedural, and perhaps is not unlike “Zodiac,” insofar as it’s another intense examination of past events from the contradicting perspective of several different people.
“Obviously there was a lot of Internet chatter when it was first announced,” Fincher explained dryly not concealing his disdain for the Internet. “I think people thought we were making a sequel to ‘The Net’ or something, or we were trying to do some fad-hopping, but I didn’t really know anything about the origins of Facebook. I just had a dry read of the script that had a bunch of people that I felt I knew intimately and could relate to and felt it was a wonderful two hour [movie].”
Unless, you’ve been living under a rock you probably know the film centers on three men: Zuckerberg, his business partner Saverin and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the entrepreneur and former Napster co-founder and their involvement (and eventual, bitter falling-out) in the creation of the now phenomenally popular social media application (500 million active users and counting) that has changed the digital landscape like no other. But that’s just surface level conceit as the picture is much more about alienation, brotherhood (or lack thereof), the nature of communication, the irony of disconnection in the dialed-in media world, with a good dose of betrayal, greed, alienation and misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
“I never thought it was a movie about Facebook,” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said. “It was a movie that has themes as old as storytelling itself, friendship, loyalty, class, jealousy, things that Shakespeare or [legendary screenwriter] Paddy Chayefsky would write about. Lucky for me none of these guys were around so I got to write about it.”
Those expecting a traditional biopic explaining why people behaved the way they did should also be forewarned. This is a movie that lives in a present tense and attempts to deconstruct facts for an audience to discern or make what they will of them. “I wasn’t interested in [the why], ” Fincher said, “I was interested in what they did, and because we saw it from multiple points of view — and all of those points of view were of course polarized by intense litigation — [you never knew the full truth.]”
Sorkin echoed the thought, noting the different points of view created layers upon layers of subjective truths and realities. “What I really liked was that there were three different versions of this story, there was [a] ‘Rashomon‘ [effect] but I came up with the structure of the deposition rooms that would give everyone the ability to say, ‘that’s not true, that’s not what happened.'”
While Facebook themselves and Zuckerberg declined any involvement or cooperation in the film, and the CEO was quoted as saying he would simply ignore the film, a recent report claimed that the Facebook co-founder attended a recent screening in Seattle. “I know there was [that] rumor,” Sorkin said about the alleged appearance. “But I doubt it. I don’t think there are any of us who would want a movie made about the things we did when were nineteen years old… I doubt he’ll be the first in line to see it next Friday,” Sorkin said. “He purchased a print,” Fincher said flatly as the room went silent, before letting the gas out of his ruse. “I’m joking,” he winked.
As for recent claims that some of the source material — Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires” — was embellished, fictionalized and/or conveyed a deeply incomplete and therefore flawed portrait in the collaboration and battle over Facebook credit, Sorkin insists “Nothing in the movie was invented for the sake of Hollywood-izing it or sensationalizing it.” The writer also added that aside from the aforementioned book he conducted his own “first-person research” with real-life characters in the movie and people close to the event who spoke on the conditions of anonymity. As for a controversial cocaine and bare breasts scene in the film, well, for one it’s incredibly tame. “I’m not going to sell any tickets by making this statement, but let me tell you there is less sex in this movie than there is any two minutes in ‘Gossip Girl,'” Sorkin quipped.
As stated in our ‘Social Network’ film review earlier today, Eisenberg delivers the best performance of his career and Garfield, the upcoming “Spider-Man,” is destined for great things beyond tentpoles. Plus, the film also contains Mara Rooney, the next, ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ and another constant scene stealer is Armie Hammer, who does digital double duty as the Kennedy-like Winklevoss twins (Hammer was handpicked to play Batman in the “Justice League” film director George Miller could never get off the ground).
Well aware his cast is an embarrassment of possibly unknown, but up-and-coming riches, Fincher praised the various players saying they are all destined for long-term greatness. “I feel about it like, would I have liked to have made ‘American Graffiti’? Now, in it’s own weird way I’ve been able to. I got to look at eight, nine people across a screen and go, ‘There was a moment in time where they were all in the same movie.’ “
“The Social Network” opens October 1. Photos taken and used with permission courtesy of Jeffrey Wells and Hollywood Elsewhere.