You have to wonder whether Mark Zuckerberg would ever have liked this career defining portrayal by Jesse Eisenberg? His character comes across as an arrogant ass of a man who is prepared to chuck just about everyone under the bus in order to get his original concept of an inter-connected network that enables folk to chat with each other in real time online. He is fed the germ of the idea by the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and using $1,000 from his best (and only) pal Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) is soon well on the way to developing "Facebook". That comes to the attention of the savvier Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) but it's pretty clear that he and Saverin are no match made in heaven. As the story progresses, the personalities are quite sensitively and intensely developed as ambition takes over and Zuckerberg finds himself more and more isolated. Eisenberg is really quite effective here. His portrayal of a man who is fiercely intelligent, sarcastic and focussed is quite compelling to watch - even if it does, frequently, make you want to shoot him. Garfield, too, works well as the almost diametrically opposite sort of character who only towards the end realises he is being played and institutes the legal proceedings around which the entire biopic is based. There are so many NDAs involved to know the extent to which this might be true or just speculative, but Aaron Sorkin is at his writing best and David Fincher likewise in the director's chair as we are introduced to an embryonic industry riddled with selfishness and innovation.
