The magic formula in The Social Network

Pure cinematic experience. Despite being about algorithms and web programming, Internet traffic and lawsuits, the film never becomes a geeky labyrinth like the mercurial mindscape of the lead character. Sorry Mark Zuckerberg for using Twitter lingo, but The Social Network makes you ‘follow’ the film. As a viewer you are always that tiny step behind but close enough to catch up with what’s hurtling across the screen at top speed. It’s the kind of movie experience where you don’t even have the time to turn to your girlfriend for the... bowl of popcorn.

Nuclear scenes at full speed. If the Bourne series changed the duration of a shot, Social Network has redefined the duration of a scene. The Aaron Sorkin script, a sureshot Oscar nominee if not a winner, cuts between the legal proceedings and the backstory not as present-and-flashback events but individual short scenes. These nuclear scenes set the pace of the movie, further accentuated by the fervent speed at which the characters speak.

The Fincher feel. The best thing about David Fincher is that unlike many other great directors of his time, he doesn’t limit himself to one subject or theme or genre. And he more than does justice to everything he takes up because he stays true to the script. Alien 3, Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, Benjamin Button... these are subjects as different as they get and every time Fincher gets to the core of the matter and lets it blossom to the fullest. In The Social Network too, the 48-year-old director understands the generation, the characters, their internal trauma and maps the network of his movie brilliantly.

Dialogues, from the bottom of the heart. As someone tweeted, in the post-Tarantino movie world, this is perhaps the first film where the dialogues stick. They serve the purpose of the respective scenes but also hang around long enough for gleeful recap and requotes. Let’s just relive the few words which set up the entire film. In the opening scene, Rooney Mara’s Erica tells Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark: “You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”

Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network

Scenes that internalise the conflict. One complain about Social Network, and there are really very few (its score is a staggering 97% on rottentomatoes.com), is that the film is low on soul count. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we never see the main players emote dramatically. Especially Jesse who runs the entire show with a neutral look. Right from the teaser poster of the film which had a close-up of his face, we hardly ever see any emotion flit across Jesse’s face. It’s all happening in that precious little head. And how do you show that? Go to the opening credits scene when Mark is walking from the bar, where he is dumped by Erica, to his room. This walk across a throbbing Harvard campus where he just hangs his hooded head thinking of his ‘web’ of revenge is a terrific one-against-the-world scene. The only time he looks up is for a guy playing the violin. And then he moves on. Fincher wanted to shoot this elaborate scene in one single shot. He couldn’t. But he still drove home the point.

The best closing scene in a long time. It’s that little cup of single-shot espresso after a great dinner. The man who got 500 million friends (and counting) together on one web platform, is refreshing the page every couple of seconds, hoping that his friend request is accepted. The youngest billionaire in the world who’s created the greatest social networking hub in the history of human civilisation is a loner desperately seeking acceptance. He has “I’m CEO, bitch” on his business card but if that bitch doesn’t respond to his friend request, nothing else really matters. Perhaps that’s why Facebook is still “expanding”.

Do the new. All of them have done this and that in the past and have also bagged big projects for the future but with The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer have arrived. Jesse with his loaded blank looks, Andrew with his knowing empty stares and Armie with a way-out double act are the anchors of the movie and naturally the future force of Hollywood moviedom. Not forgetting the brilliant three-scene cameo by Rooney Mara, our new girl with the dragon tattoo. And did we hear Justin Timberlake? Well, Sean Parker couldn’t have been anyone else.

Life will never be the same again. Let’s face it. If you have seen The Social Network, opening the Facebook page will never be the same again. What say?