On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history, but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.

The Social Network tackles several tricky subjects and that is how to tell a true story that is mired in conspiracy and conflicting stories and how to make a computer geek and code based film something that the general masses will enjoy. And for the most part the film accomplishes both feats with relative ease and is quite entertaining to watch. It does help that there is so much drama and plot and conspiracy around the creation of something like Facebook that is perfect for a big screen adaptation.

The Social Network tackles the first part of its tricky subjects by doing its research and trying to tell all sides of the story and not just one. You get to see how someone who has made the word friend so relevant now days also alienated and ruined the few friendships he had on his way to becoming the youngest billionaire. You also get glimpses into his genius and how a simple idea evolved into a worldwide phenomenon. The Social Network walks the tightrope between true story and entertaining film that does necessarily need to hold to the whole true the entire time. And the research is the key to a lot of this as the film producers and director did copious amounts of it from going over legal documents to reading Zuckerberg’s Harvard application that got leaked onto the net. In a day an age where Facebook is breaking down the privacy walls the film uses that to its advantage to sculpt a plot that is very much mired in controversy.

The way the film tackles its second tricky obstacle is to basically gloss over the technical aspects of the creation of Facebook and rather focus on the human aspects and the drama that its creation caused. We do get snippets of computer talk and coding but that is to only add to the authenticity of the film and to give some realism to the film. Most code would way go over audiences heads and the Social Network realizes that and instead focuses on the characters of the film in telling a very compelling story.

Jesse Eisenberg is the perfect actor for the role of Mark Zuckerberg as he Has a screen presence that captures the audience all the while still being able to play a computer nerd about to embark on a billion dollar franchise. It might be Justin Timberlake that steals the show though as the controversial Napster founder Sean Parker who somehow finds a way to weasel himself into the graces of Zuckerberg and the pockets of facebook. The Social Network is a very entertaining film that is low on action but very high on human drama and plot.

Grade: B+