THE SOCIAL NETWORK

RYAN: I’ve been very excited to see the Facebook movie for a while, and now that we’ve finally seen it we can confirm the good buzz. I think it will win Best Picture at the Oscars; or at the very least, get nominated. It’s genius.

CAROLINE: I feel like it’s more of a Best Screenplay winner. It’s awfully early to be calling something Best Picture since we haven’t seen most of the Oscar contenders yet. But The Social Network is definitely a fascinating movie that’s incredibly well written, well acted and well structured.

RYAN: Everything about it is amazing. The editing, the soundtrack; I think it’s favorite score ever that’s not written by John Williams or Danny Elfman.

CAROLINE: The music is by Trent Reznor and it punctuates the movie perfectly. I loved the whole cast. The only negative thing I can say is about about the ridiculously bad CGI breath coming out of people’s mouths to indicate that it’s cold outside. It looked terrible.

RYAN: I know! We both died laughing when we saw it.

CAROLINE: They should have just skipped it. No one would have noticed if it weren’t there.

RYAN: There is a lot of speculation as to how true to life this film is; but regardless, it’s highly entertaining and fast paced. It’s a very ‘talky’ movie, as most things written by Aaron Sorkin are. You almost have to pay close attention like you do in Inception, though it’s obviously not as confusing.

CAROLINE: The first scene irritated me a little with its fast talking. It seemed too fast and almost didn’t sound like real people talking. But then the pacing settled in nicely, and everything comes at you rapid fire and it’s completely riveting. I also appreciated the Aaron Sorkin cameo. I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised that David Fincher made another really good movie.

RYAN: I’ve never disliked Justin Timberlake as an actor – he’s certainly a better pop star-turned-actor than Madonna – but I didn’t expect much from him in this movie. I thought he did a great job though. I really can’t criticize him in this film. It’s definitely weird to see him, a big part of the music industry, playing the guy who essentially brought down the music industry through the creation of Napster.

CAROLINE: Yeah, I thought the same thing. He was good in this, though I think it helped that his character is a pompous, smooth-talking dude. It worked well for him. I was also really really impressed with Andrew Garfield, who we just saw in Never Let Me Go. I still have no idea if he’s British or American. His accent is that convincing in both movies.

RYAN: He’s the new Spider-Man too. And I want to give a shout out to the guy who plays the Winklevoss twins. He’s really hot and looked like he could be Brendan Fraser’s younger brother.

CAROLINE: I was really impressed by him too, acting and hotness-wise.

RYAN: There aren’t any major female roles other than Rashida Jones, who plays one of the lawyers, and Rooney Mara, who plays the girlfriend/ex-girlfriend, and is going to be The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This isn’t really a girls’ story, but it’s really remarkable. It’s got to be one of the most amazing business stories in modern history.

CAROLINE: It’s obviously not the only time someone has screwed over a friend/business partner, but it’s one of the only stories to get such a brilliant film treatment that’s also relatable to the younger generation.

— BOTTOM LINE —

CAROLINE: Believe the hype. This is a really good movie with a fascinating story first and foremost. I don’t want to take away from the quality of the film, but when you have a story this good it’s hard to go wrong. Obviously they’ve taken some liberties with the story and Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook and main character, has said he won’t see the movie. But I think the basic framework of the movie seems accurate and believable. It’s an incredible story and it makes for a riveting film. I think everyone from teens to people our parents’ age will enjoy it; though it’s probably best for people from their teens to their 40s. My mom doesn’t have much of a working knowledge of Facebook.

RYAN: It’s great for anyone high school aged and up, even the older folks, I think, because it’s such a great business story and the legal scenes are so cool too. Even if you’re not into to social networking, Facebook is such a phenomenon and this story is so well written that you’ll still be entertained. This movie is going to do very well both critically and commercially.

— RATING —