By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel
Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is the smartest guy in the room. He used to be the smartest kid in the room, though he aged out of that. Kind of.
But the questions posited by David Fincher’s brilliant film, “The Social Network,” scripted by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin, is why anyone would want to be that smart and just what Zuckerberg’s brand of brilliance gets him.
The first answer is the same reason guys become athletes or rock stars: to meet women. And the second is more intriguing. Zuckerberg, stunningly interpreted by Jesse Eisenberg, is an unfiltered genius — manic, compulsive, unable to censor an unkind word, unwilling to let go of an idea until he has mastered it, unable to pause even long enough for commas when he’s trying to stop his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) from breaking up with him in the film’s killer 5-minute opening scene.
‘THE SOCIAL NETWORK’* Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language.* Running time: 2 hours.
As we watch the tale of the founding of Facebook unfold — told through flashbacks at court depositions, Harvard ethics hearings and the like — we feel awful for this witheringly smart Harvard boy who traffics so easily in the condescending putdown. “Creation myths need a devil,” a sympathetic lawyer assures him. And Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is just that, a devil obsessed with details and not shy — not in the least — when it comes to anything or anyone that stands in the way of his cool idea.
Revel in Sorkin’s saucy, sarcastic re-creation of a scene in which the privileged Winkelvosses (“Winklevi” is what Zuckerberg calls them) try to enlist Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, in their case.
And try, try, try not to think of these folks and this creation myth as you burn off hours at Zuckerberg’s “freakishly addictive” invention. The performances, direction and writing of one of the best pictures of 2010 make this “Social Network” every bit as addictive — and a little chilling as well.