THE SOCIAL NETWORK: how to become popular without being likeable

It's easy to forget that Facebook is a relatively new creation. It's had such an incredible impact on the way we communicate and interact with one another that it's difficult to remember a time without it, yet when I joined a little over four years ago a .edu email address was still required for membership, which meant that many of the friends I wanted to talk to online were excluded from sharing in the fascinating moment by moment updates on my life.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK is an absorbing account of how this social media behemoth came to be and it's not a happy tale. There's enough business skullduggery here to grace the boardroom of a long established multi-national conglomerate. At the centre of the storm is Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the Harvard student and computer programming genius who invents - or steals depending on your viewpoint - the website which exploded into the global social phenomenon called Facebook.
To fellow undergrads Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss he's a thief. They hire him to build their concept for a Harvard-only online social networking site and can't believe it when he launches "The Facebook" a few months later and insists it's all his own idea. To best friend Eduardo Savarin, who bankrolls the fledgling project, he's a cold-hearted bastard who tricks him out of his rightful place in the business once it starts to take off.   
Zuckerberg is not an easy character to like. In addition to his questionable business ethics, he's introverted, socially graceless, arrogant, aggressive, inept with girls, and a perennial outsider. This man doesn't just have a chip on his shoulder, he's got a 5 pound sack of potatoes, and while the film never explicitly says so it's difficult not to be left with the feeling that part of what motivated Zuckerberg was a desire to show those on 'the inside' that he was better than them.
His computer programming skills are undeniably impressive. The idea of watching a guy typing code onto a screen is not something that fills me with excitement but screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher succeed in making the actual donkey work of creating Facebook into a process that holds the attention. They wisely sidestep the tired visual cliche of computer screens reflecting on faces to focus on the enthusiasm and anticipation of those doing the programming.

Zuckerberg's partner in engineering Facebook's ascent to world domination is Sean Parker, the teenage creator of Napster. As played by Justin Timberlake in serious actor mode, Parker comes off as only marginally less unlikeable than Zuckerberg. He sees in Facebook an even bigger opportunity than Napster offered (and fraught with far fewer legal headaches) and he seizes it, playing on Zuckerberg's idolising of him to force Savarin from the company and take control of its future direction.
There's a couple of messages to take away from THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Never go into business with a friend who's more talented than you, and don't blame Zuckerberg for Facebook's ubiquitous presence. It's that big because we made it that big. No one held a gun to our head and made us friend people we barely knew and then immerse ourselves in the minutae of their lives.
 THE SOCIAL NETWORK clocks in at just over 2 hours but doesn't feel a moment too long. The use of flashbacks to describe how Zuckerberg and his creation got to where they are today keeps us constantly wanting to know more. I enjoyed this film much more than I expected to. It's well written, well acted and should be required viewing for everyone of the 500 million of us who just can't get through the day without a fix of Facebook.