Image credit: Merrick Morton
Part of the brilliance of The Social Network is that there’s no obvious character to root for in the film. Some people will come out of the movie sympathizing with Mark Zuckerberg (or at least the version of Mark Zuckerberg portrayed in the film), while others will despise him. So to finish up my interview with the cast members and their screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, I asked them where their allegiances lay now that they’ve seen the finished product. Their answers surprised me. (Particularly Justin Timberlake’s: Though the PR people surrounding us halted the interview before he could respond, he told me after the cameras stopped rolling that he felt bad for, of all people, Eduardo’s girlfriend, played by Brenda Song.) Take a look at their responses below. And if you’ve seen The Social Network, tell me: Whose side are you on?
Brenda Song was great, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what Zack and Cody would think of the scene in the bathroom stall, and for that matter Mr. Mosby too!
Totally agree! She will always be a disney channel actor to me, so that bathroom scene was awkward
How could anyone NOT feel for Eduardo? Garfield is the soul of this film. Without him, no one to root for.
I did an actual fist pump when Eduardo is in Mark’s face saying, “Only I’m not coming back for 30%, I’m coming back for everything!” I was like finally! He’s not a pushover anymore! He was definitely my favorite character.
I did the exact same thing. Although I think Parker had a lot to do with the situation.
Yes definitely, I did feel for Mark at times but I was 100% with Eduardo the whole time. Garfield’s perforance in that scene was brilliant.
Garfield’s got to get nominated for Best Supporting. That guy conveyed the whole emotional spectrum in that film. I can’t wait for this guy to start taking on more meaty roles. p.s. He was sensational in The Red Riding Trilogy.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Best Score.
Eduardo was great BUT as the financial/business person of the enterprise, he failed miserably (with the exception of the all-important start-up money). Though he deserved his 7% of the company, anyone starting a company should know that sometimes you will enlist friends to assist who simply can not produce the desired results (ads, angel investors) no matter how hard they try. You must have a Plan B (replace or supplement said friend, reduce their % ownership, etc.) or you may see your dream go up in flames.
Did he fail miserably? And if so, then why did Mark not bother to confer with him? Also, did Eduardo fail to deliver advertisers because Mark kept on insisting on not having them? Moreover, I have a hard time seeing how anyone could get an advertiser with someone making noises during meetings. Mark never bothered to say anything to Eduardo. And why do it in a misleading way.
But that’s the most obvious reaction, I feel. Eduardo’s sweet, Andrew Garfield has the cutest face you ever wanted to pinch/hug that skinny little frame of yours. But he also comes off as someone doesn’t lack the vision or intrinsic potential of Facebook the way Mark does, and someone who deserved to get left behind.
I’m all with Eisenberg’s portrayal. He makes you understand that it’s all coming from a deep-rooted loneliness, and an admiration for his unparalleled brains and unwavering devotion to what he’s made.
That is, somehow who lacks the vision. Since his only role was putting an initial investment, I’d say that a .03 share in a billion-dollar company (Saverin’s worth hundreds of millions today) is a pretty sufficient reward. (And reportedly, Mark’s other roommates were much more integral to Facebook’s early years)
Eduardo – totally! He got screwed big time. I also felt bad for Erica but her speech at the bar was awesome!
Yeah Brenda was great at it.
I felt bad for her too.
He basically broke her heart, she was really insecure.
“really insecure” is a major character flaw and she deserved to be left. You don’t coddle someone with security issues. No one wants to date them.
Win.
What I appreciate most about this movie (aside from the amazing boat race scene) was that you could completely understand why each person felt entitled.
Eduardo was the company’s first investor which is a legitimate claim to the fortune but I can understand how Matt could see that Eduardo could never have the big picture vision that he did. Also with the twins, I think they did inspire his idea but he didn’t steal it. Again, they weren’t after the same big picture but I can understand that in Matt’s mind that he made sure not to use their code so really, what did they steal.
In the end I think everyone did deserve a piece and hopefully Eduardo got a big one.
By Matt do you mean Mark?
The boat scene WAS amazing! I felt like it wasn’t really relevant but it was gorgeous to watch. The music, the pace, the lighting, the tone were all brilliant.
ITA with Tori – loved that scene too. Cinematography was great.
i agree, very well synced scene. what was the name of the song in that scene?
I think the boat race scene was pretty AND was a symbolic representation of the complex between Team Winklevoss and Zuckerburg.
Outside of the females who had minor roles, there’s no one to root for…which is the problem I had with the film.
I thought it was pretty good, the writing was excellent but the disconnect between the characters and the viewers is what loses it for me with this film. All the guys whined and complained, at Harvard, and yet they all ended up millionaires and billionaires. I couldn’t even sympathize with them.
I disagree. It’s not like they knew they were going to be billionaires. I felt like you could sympathize with everyone except Sean Parker.
Sean Parker is a genius…to see the potential in Napster AND Facebook in their infancy stages takes extraordinary talent.
Who cares if they became billionaires? According to the twins, and from my experience, all you need is the harvard.edu e-mail and you were someone.
So no, I couldn’t find sympathy with any of the characters.
I never understand why people need someone to root for to appreciate a great movie.
I’m not sure you HAVE to sympathise with them to appreciate their performances.
or are you confusing ‘sympathy’ with ‘empathy’, TcA?
I agree with the poster above who said that Andrew Garfield was the soul of the movie. All of the actors were great and brought a ton of talent to the table but like his Spiderman predecessor Andrew had to show the world he is more than a hot bod. Even in the sexier scenes, he showed restraint and a touch of class.
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If by “his spiderman predecessor”, you are talking about tobey maguire, then you are quite mistaken. If anything, Tobey had to prove that he could be a hot bod.
Anyway, I left the movie thinking that Zuckerberg is an *ss. I understand his reasoning that he developed everything and therefore deserved the most credit, but for him to push a friend out like that…what a weasel.
“but like his Spiderman predecessor Andrew had to show the world he is more than a hot bod.”
Haha what?
Tobey was an indie darling who had to prove that he COULD be a hot bod.
Today’s NY Times reported that the film’s Oscar potential dropped much, because of the relatively weak opening–allowing for “Toy Story 3″ and others to lead in the Best Picture category. TSN’s anti-woman mantle will turn off Oscar voters who like movies such as “The Blind Side.” And there are lots of those voters out there.
Are we still on the “anti-woman” thing? As was addressed in that other post, the most sane/rational/wise character in the movie was Rashida Jones’ lawyer character…a WOMAN.
Not only that, but Rooney Mara had some of the best lines in the movie, and didn’t put up with Mark’s snarky bullsh*t. She was one of the strongest characters in the movie.
It’s accurate to the perspective of the characters and that does it just fine.
Oh come on. According to the movie, Zuckerberg’s motivation for even starting Facebook was to “get back” at the girl who scorned him, to feel cool and wanted. At the end, he was still pining for her. Anti-woman? More like, behind every great man is a woman that was too good for him.
Except that girl didn’t even exist.
Okay, I feel like I need to stop comparing the film to what really happened. I’m starting to **** myself off.
Did you come up with that last line yourself? That made me laugh so hard I almost fell off my chair. Great line.
Right on. If not for this movie, I wouldn’t have known Harvard girls are such party-loving, loose, crazy sluts – especially the Asian ones.
I don’t know why but I didn’t like Mark’s ex-girlfriend Erica, at all. I don’t know why he was kind of a jerk to her at the beginning of the film but she just bugged me. Looking back I kinda liked that he slammed her on his blog.
Although I have yet to see the film and therefore will reserve final judgment until then, my gut tells me I will have a hard time sympathetizing with any of them. How can I sympathetize with any of these privileged white boys born with silver spoon in their mouths who demoralize and objectify women? And the women are just as bad and are their own worst enemy. To all women around the nation: Use your brains for good and not your bodies for bad!! Okay, my rant is over…..
I think you should watch the film first. The privileged white boys are actually geniuses and in their own right deserve the success through hard work (which is what they showed in the film). Mark Zuckerberg knew he was smart, and that’s what made him a jerk. But still, it’s easy to sympathize with him in the end.
I agree with Bec but must correct her on the plural of ‘genius’. The plural of genius is ‘genii’ and not ‘geniuses’ (believe me I speak English in England).
I’m getting the impression people on here are using the word, ‘sympathy’ when they mean ‘empathy’. These words don’t mean the same thing. I think we empathise with Mark because his flaws are so horrendously unambiguous. I’m not sure we are supposed to sympathise with any of the characters other than Eduardo.
I saw the film and I think that the characters are very intense, self destructive driven people who have lost all touch with humanity, except earlier in the film when the one WinkleVoss twin doesn’t want to pursue legal action against Mark since they’re Harvard men. One of the biggest problem I had with the WinkleVoss twins was that as grown, adult college Olympia-ready athletes…they’re identical twins that finish each other’s thoughts and sentences?! UMM NO. I don’t know any straight male identical twins that would still do that in their positions.
As as for the argument of having to feel bad for Eduardo…YES, he was the first investor in the company, and helped supply the money to keep the CA operation going…but what the film fails to properly convey is, when he tells Mark he quit his internship after the 1st day, he stayed in NYC and basically spent the entire summer with his crazy gf, whom he later runs from (twice). Now I’m not sure of the actual story here, but as far as the movie goes, yes, you are made to feel bad for Eduardo but on some level you have to kind of wonder why didn’t he go to California sooner and show a greater interest in what Mark was doing there.
I’m not really sure I feel bad for Mark, since he from the first moment of the movie, he displays that he is simply one of those people that are so smart, they don’t know how to properly interact with others beneath his level of intelligence, even the girl he loves. So do you feel bad for him for being too smart? I guess the moral of the movie is the age old adage…Money can’t buy you love. They say there really only like 5 basic stories that are re-told over & over in different forms in tv & film, and I guess this movie kind of proves that.
Eduardo, and the audience was totally on his side too in my theater. There were gasps and groans when it was revealed how much his share had shrunken to. But overall I came out understanding and sympathizing with both Eduardo’s and Mark’s point of view, even though the latter obviously had made more mistakes throughout and was not perfect.
Forbes had an article about what really happened, and it turns out the real Eduardo tried to advertise a social network he was creating on facebook without permission. Still, it was wrong to leave him off the cofounders list.
Also, Eduardo and Mark were not best friends in real life. I feel like making them best friends in the film was done to make the betrayal seem even worse.
Tracy, this is based on a book which portrays one perspective. Nobody here is stupid enough to think that Jesse Eisenberg IS Mark Zuck. Calm down and stop acting as if you have some inside knowledge on real events.
Team Eduardo!!!
Vision is everything. If you lack vision, then you deserve to be left behind.
If I weren’t addicted to Farmville, I would have cancelled my Facebook account as soon as I got home from the theater. While I’m sure it’s not 100% accurate, there is enought truth in there that assures me my extreme dislike for Zuckerberg now definitely has merit.
Hey Phil, there’s something called Google that would solve all of your reservations or doubts about Facebook.
If you wanted to do that just because you thought the founder was a bit of an a$$, I’m afraid you’d have to repudiate ninety-five percent of the products you use in your everyday life.