Last Wednesday. Before we met up with Pot, Danica and John for a quick Thai dinner, Mary and I saw the movie that has been anointed to be 2010’s best : The Social Network. What’s it about? Well, if you’re a Facebook user – and since there are over 500 million of us, you’ll probably know what.
As with so many collegiate tales, it all starts with a girl. Bitter about being dumped, superbajillionerd Zuckerberg (whom I think I may have developed a weird little crush on) grabs a beer and rustles up Facemash, a website allowing fellow students to rate female undergrads based on looks. Unsurprisingly, the stunt gets him in all kinds of trouble; and after crashing the campus server within hours, its popularity can’t be denied (promotional tote bags not included).
Liking thee geek’s style, future Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (which I was shocked to learn was both played by Armie Hammer / think pre-pubescent Lindsay Lohan in Parent Trap, how cool is that?!?) enlist Zuckerberg to flesh out their own vision for an online Harvard clique. The ZMan takes the idea and – bankrolled by his best pal Saverin - runs with it, using his own code to produce a bigger, better version that spreads through the Ivy League like wildfire. Understandably, the cheated “Winklevi” want blood … and this is where the fun and serious games really begin (a little debt settlement, debt negotiation and debt relief here and there heh).
The real Zuckerberg may not “become a fan” nor may not “like” the film presentation of himself but irony lovers will lap up this splendidly disconnected portrayal of a man whose business is built on connecting people.
