I was expecting to like this film. I felt both internal and external pressure to do so. Directed by David Fincher, written by Aaron Sorkin, starring Jesse Eisenberg, and having received extremely positive reviews, I was excited. Yet, as so often with such great anticipation, a certain amount of disappointment was inevitable. The film goes nowhere. It doesn’t follow the history of the company exactly (we are supposed to know a certain amount of it, which I didn’t - I don’t use Facebook), nor the history of a person, or a relationship. We are given snapshots that portend importance, but do not achieve it. It is fast-talking and fast-flowing, some of the dialogue is sparkling, but a lot of this is mumbled, incoherent or uninteresting to someone who doesn’t know anything about Facebook. In ten years, will this film be at all intriguing to anyone? I hesitate to dismiss it outright, because of the talent involved and the accolades it has received. The most fascinating aspect of the movie is the final effect on Zuckerberg himself, but this isn’t the whole film, and the whole film doesn’t lead inextricably to this point. It is almost an after-thought. The problem with a good ending is that it seduces us into thinking the whole film was good.
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