Is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a grade-A a**hole?
"The Social Network" begins and ends by raising that thorny question. Even Shakespeare couldn't have penned a better quandary or a more perfectly imperfect take on this controversial boy billionaire than what we see here.
Everyone knows Zuckerberg's story.
He started Facebook (or The Facebook as it was originally called) at 19. He is currently worth US$6.9 billion. He also faced two huge lawsuits that put Zuckerberg's reputation and Facebook's real ownership into question.
Does that make this enfant terrible of the Internet an a**hole?
If moviegoers only saw the first 10 minutes of David Fincher's crackling new Facebook drama the answer would be yes.
This pompous Harvard brainiac (played withy icy ruthlessness by Jesse Eisenberg) sits across from a girl he's dating (Rooney Mara), impressing her, so he believes, with a fierce volley of words that would cut steel.
Zuckerberg's condescending banter fails miserably. The girl dumps this pompous jerk.
Then this egghead who can count algorithms as his only friends runs to his dorm room (the geek's Bat Cave here) and wreaks his revenge.
Zuckerberg blogs about the woman, calling her a bitch.
The anti-social 19-year-old then hacks into Harvard's computer database. His mission? Post photos of his "ex" and other coeds for Harvard's men to rate sexually.
Of course, all this is just greasy kid stuff next to the big trouble this sad, lonely genius inspires on the way to "accidentally" founding Facebook.
But the moral is the same. Cross Zuckerberg and you will pay.
Based on the book "The Accidental Billionaire," "The Social Network" is largely told from within lawyers' offices. That sounds dull but Fincher's camerawork makes this a riveting ride.
There we see the Winklevoss twins, the big men on campus who originally enlisted Zuckerberg to help them develop their own networking site, The Harvard Connection.
Zuckerberg signs on, puts Harvard's cool kids off for weeks and then transforms their kernel of on idea into "The Facebook."
Is that theft, betrayal, greed, moral carelessness?
We also hear Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's only true friend and original business partner, recount how the social-networking titan screwed him over.
None of this is pretty and all of it speaks to a generation's expectations of making great fortunes in less time than you can Facebook a friend.
But you just can't help feel for Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) as he describes how Zuckerberg pushed him out of the business and replaced him with flashy Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake).
Zuckerberg's argument is that Eduardo thought small. He didn't have Parker's vision or his killer instinct.
Fair enough.
Regardless of whose story you believe, Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin force us to measure these necessary business "sins" against our own consciences.
They also make it virtually impossible to take our eyes off the most unlikeable, most impassive of film heroes you'll ever see.
Eisenberg's performance is so good and so inscrutable by the end of "The Social Network" you feel sorry for this misanthrope with the personality of a paperweight.
Is Zuckerberg an a**hole?
Only you can decide. After all, nice guys finish last. Right?
Three and a half stars out of four.
