The Social Network: Some Questions

The Social Network tells the story of Facebook's dramatic founding. (Who would have thought a couple of lines of code could lead to broken friendships and multi-million-dollar lawsuits, right?) After avidly watching the movie, I walked out of the theater puzzling over a few questions:

SPOILER ALERT FROM PRETTY MUCH HERE ON IN

Who's the villain of the movie? The Social Network doesn't have a clear good guy or bad guy. Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as an incredible tool, but not necessarily a villain. His desire for fame, notoriety, and attention from girls lead him to make some D+ decisions, but he's not the muah-ha-ha-ha, mustache-twirling guy tying his co-founders to the tracks. Shawn Fanning's a grade-A DB, but really, he's more of a narcissistic bad influence than an outright evil conniver. So, who's the villian, Sparklers? CAPITALISM. Or, um, AMERICA'S UNSPOKEN CASTE SYSTEM. Actually, it's more like DUDES' UNIVERSAL AND CONSTANT NEED TO GET LAID.

Why would anyone go to Harvard? The movie paints it as a place where you're either a genetically-perfect snob-and-a-half, a nympho, a condescending genius, a victim, or maybe a legacy moron.

Will Justin Timberlake take home an Oscar? No, but Andrew Garfield might. He plays Eduardo Saverin, Facebook's original CFO, and the guy who pretty much gets screwed out of his ties to the company when Shawn Fanning hops on board. Don't get me wrong; Timberlake's good and all, and it's fun to see him play such a compelling jerk. But Garfield is essentially the star of the movie, and that's a surprise. A film that could easily be all about Zuckerberg instead is a love story about the fallout of a destroyed friendship. Garfield rocks it as the jilted BFF, and since he's got a special talent for looking wounded, you come out of the movie feeling like you should send some flowers and an apology note his way.

Should Trent Reznor pretty much only write film scores now? Yes. I think you rarely notice a score unless it's particularly bad or outstandingly good, and Reznor's score falls in the latter camp. His ambient music is menacing and moody and perfect, and it's not that we don't love your indictments of consumerism, Trent—you're just so good at writing stuff for the movies. Maybe you could save your disillusionment and tortured-ness for Madea's Big Happy Family or something? Kthx.

Is heartbreak the best inspiration? According to the movie, Zuckerberg's initial inspiration stemmed directly from getting brutally dumped by his girlfriend. Fueled by anger and hurt, he codes through the night until he creates an addictive online game, crashes the Harvard servers, and gains on-campus notoriety. Since his failed relationship leads to huge amounts of success, it makes you wonder—can you invent amazing stuff when you're happy, or do you need to be miserable and half-crazy before you come up with a billion-dollar idea? I mean, I've been in a great relationship for a couple of years now, and the best idea I've had so far is a gum keeper: a place where you can keep the gum you're chewing on when you're eating something but you're not quite done with the piece of gum yet. That way, you don't waste gum! Right? Um. Maybe I should try to get dumped.

Did you see The Social Network? Do you agree with Rachel's answers?

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