8 - Friday, October 1, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 8 - Friday, October 1, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0 FROM LEFT: Jesse Eisenberg (Marissa McClain/Daily); Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield in "The Social Network" (Courtesy of Columbia); Aaron Sorkin (Marissa McClain/Daily) FACEBOOK IN FILM SOCIAL NETWORK From Page 7 between Facebook co-creators Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, "The Imagi- narium of Doctor Parnassus") and Napster creator Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). At the same time it intercuts with a scene a few years later, in which Zuckerberg and Saverin sit across the table in court, opposite sides in a civil suit. While not a revolutionary film- making style, it's cleaner and more fruitful study than any similarly structured contemporary film. Fincher and Sorkin dare to chal- lenge your attention, and as a result, they score the big reward. Narratively, though, the film suffers slightly from a sense of self-importance. When all is said and done, the film never brings to full light the true weight of its own story, but rests on the viewing experience as evidence enough. Beneath the filmmakers' narra- tive tools lies a somewhat unful- filling message. Comparisons to a similar hurt-by-his-own-ambition protagonist in "Citizen Kane" only partially work: Mark Zuckerberg is still alive, but also still among the most successful people of his generation and the youngest bil- lionaire in the world. His failures, while personally unfortunate, didn't lead to his downfall. The film leaves creating an inconclu- sive, bitter opinion of Facebook's true creation. "The Social Network" will undoubtedly stimulate debate for months to come. Those who use Facebook to laud or criti- cize the film should realize their analyses of "The Social Network" indirectly continues its story. But given the conflicted nature surrounding audiences as they step through the film and out of the theater, it seems that Sorkin, Fincher and company have pulled off an impressive feat - showing a contentious set of circumstanc- es in a fair light, while still enter- taining from start to finish. Networking with the stars Sorkin, Eisenberg and Hammer discuss the Facebook film By CAROLYN KLARECKI Senior Arts Editor "I wasn't on Facebook. I had heard of Facebook the way I had heard of a carburetor," playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said in an interview in the Daily's offices last month. "I can't pop open the hood of my car and point to it and tell you what it does." Despite his lack of familiarity with the popular social networking site, Sorkin - whose works include "A Few Good Men" and the Emmy- winning TV series "The West Wing" - never hesitated in signing on to write "The Social Network," a film about Facebook's improbable Ford School and tumultuous beginnings, out in theaters today in tandem with Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires." "Here's what happened: I got sent a 14-page book proposal that Ben Mezrich had written for his publisher. And the publisher was trying to shop it around for a film sale and so that's how it got into my hands. I think I was on page three when I said yes to this. It was the fastest that I've ever said yes to any- thing," Sorkin explained. Actor Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Facebook founder Mark Zucker- berg, was just as new to the online craze as Sorkin. "Prior to shooting, I had a cyni- cal attitude toward it," Eisenberg explained. "I think also, as an actor, I value my privacy a little more ... maybe I have a greater sensitivity toward putting information about myself online, because sometimes people write stuff about me online and it's so mean-spirited and I don't want to be involved in that." Once Sorkin had accepted the project, which would become "The Social Network," and landed David Fincher ("Fight Club") as director, he and Mezrich began figuring out what exactly the whole Facebook phenomenon is about. And he had a lot to learn, since the site wasn't his motivation to take on the project. "What attracted me to itwas that the themes in this story are as old as storytelling itself," Sorkin said. "of friendship, and loyalty, and betray- al, jealousy, power, class - these are things that Aeschylus was writ- ing about, that Shakespeare was writing about. Paddy Chayefsky would've written this story. Luck- ily for me, none of those guys were available soI got to write it." Sorkin was captivated by the lawsuits brought against Face- book founder Mark Zuckerberg and decided to center "The Social Network" on the company's legal struggles. Zuckerberg was being sued by his co-founder Eduardo Saverin for allegedly cheating him out of company ownership and by Divya Narendra, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss at roughly the same time for allegedly stealing their idea. From these lawsuits, three different stories of Face- book's founding emerged. "I decided that I was goingto tell the story of how there are three dif- ferent versions of the truth and get a 'Rashomon' effect," Sorkin said. "In other words, embrace the fact that no two people are telling the same story here." However, when stories of loyalty, betrayal, jealousy, power and class are based off true events and real people, they're typically met with some degree of controversy. Sorkin is aware some might not appreciate the film. "I don't think anyone would like a movie made about the things they did when they were 19 years old," he said. "I'm sure that Mark and Face- book would prefer that I only tell the story from Mark's point of view, but I'm telling it from Mark's point of view and the point of view of the people who were suing Mark," Sorkin said. "Facebook's beef isn't with the movie, it's with the testi- mony given from the people who sued him. I hope controversy isn't the reason why people buy a ticket. I hope it's because they heard it was good." Some would argue that after see- ing the movie, they got a glimpse of a more compassionate Zuckerberg. "My job for the six-month shoot, every day, was to defend Mark Zuckerberg and my character, because you can't act in a scene if you can't defend the character's behavior," Eisenberg said. "So I don't feel like he's acting in a way that's mean-spirited or malicious. I think he's coming from a place of loneliness and feeling threatened." The fact that Zuckerberg isn't always portrayed in the most posi- tive light was actually a relief for Eisenberg. Despite his history of playing well-meaning nice guys (including lead roles in "Adventure- land" and "Zombieland"), he said he welcomed the change, as he found it easier to play a rougher character. "It's much, much, much less dif- ficult," Eisenberg said of his role in the film. "Because everything in a movie is really contrived, and so to act like myself in all those other movies ... It's more difficult because the characters are similar to me, my gauge for authenticity is so high. Like, I'm so much more critical of myself because I know if something's off. It's so much more obvious to me." To prepare for the role, Eisen- berg watched videos of Zuckerberg, took fencing lessons (even though Zuckerberg - a known fencer - is never seen fencing in the film) and even attempted to learn some basic programming. However, despite all the research, neither Sorkin nor Eisenberg has ever met the Facebook founder. In fact, if Eisen- berg eventually does meet the man whose life he studied, it's likely to be through a mutual acquaintance. "When I read the script, I asked my cousin for some help, because my cousin is a computer program- mer," Eisenberg said. "Then a month before the movie ended, he told me he had an interview at Facebook and eventually got agreat job at Facebook. And the first week he was there, Mark Zuckerberg came up to him at a party and said, 'I think your cousin is playing me in a movie.' My cousin was a little ner- vous, but then Mark said 'I think that's really cool.'" In remaining distant from their real-life counterparts, the cast was able to stay true to Sorkin's char- acters and avoid impression-based acting. Still, Armie Hammer, who plays both Cameron and Tyler Win- klevoss with the aid of body double Josh Pence, did enjoy the fortune of meeting the real Winklevoss twins, the Olympic rowers who sued Zuck- erberg for stealing their idea of an exclusive social network. "It was weird. It was really weird," Hammer said. "We had a totally different reaction than they had. When I met them I was like, 'Guys! It's so good to see you! When you were 15, you remember when your dad told you that and your mom was like, 'No,' and then you started rowing?' And they were like, 'We just met you and you're freakingus out."' Both Eisenberg and Hammer credit Sorkin for writing great dia- logue that made it easy to perform, even though Sorkin is known for his incredibly fast pace. "If you were given bad dialogue, and you had to make it move at that speed, it'd bethehardest thinginthe world to do," Hammer explained. "But because the dialogue is so well written and so thought-out, it just flows. It would be just like you and I having a normal conversation. You do the scene three or four times and then all of a sudden, you don't have to think about your lines, it just flows. It's really cool." For Sorkin, knowing his cast would be so young made sitting down to write the first scene a little daunting. "It is the youngest group of char- acters I've ever written about," Sorkin explained. "And when I was ready to write after months and months of research and months and months of just kind of pacing around, climbing the walls, trying to think of what it was I was going to write, the day came when I knew what the opening scene was and it was time to write it, to actually type it. And I thought, well, I'm going to have to make them sound 19, and what are sort of hip 2003 words? And it was a disaster. I just stopped doing that and I said, to hell with them being 19, you're just going to have to write in your own voice - just write the way you write and it all went smoothly from there." With "The Social Network" opening today, the movie will likely leave audiences wondering how much and which parts of the story were real, while Facebook insiders scrutinize the film for inaccura- cies and imperfections. Still, Sorkin emphasizes the right to creative license when adapting real-life events to the big-screen and hopes the public will enjoy the film as a workof art, not a documentary. "If you take facts - facts that aren't in dispute about Mark - and you kind of use them as dots and start connecting the dots, what's in here, what's between the dots, is character," Sorkin said. "I would encourage people when they go into a movie and it begins with the words, 'the following is based on a true story,' (to) look at it the way you look at a painting and not a photograph." INFORMATION SESSION Ford School B.A. Program Tuesday, October 5TH 6pm-7pm, Weill Hall Betty Ford Classroom, 1110 We invite you to attend our upcoming information session about the Ford B.A. If you are interested in learning more about the undergraduate program at the Ford School, we encourage you to attend this information session. Light refreshments will be provided. .................. .......................... . ..................... www.fordschool. umich.edu/undergrad CATFISH From Page 7 Joost and Schulman uncover after the twist: a strange, sad and com- plex meditation on the loneliness of the modern human condition. "Catfish" is being released as a documentary. Joost and Schul- man have insisted many times that everything in the movie is real. And yet anyone paying attention will have several unanswered questions by the film's en, which serve to cast doubt on its authenticity (a recur- ring theme at the movies these days, thanks to the likes of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and "I'm Still Here"). Is "Catfish" a true documentary about people who construct imita- tions of lives on their computers, or is it a constructed imitation of a documentary that only shows cer- tain information to its audience while withholding other things, like a Facebook profile page? Maybe the movie actually says more about our times. If it is fake, "Catfish" already serves as a docu- menj of construction, deception and acceptance of that deception. Taking away the last "true" thing about it makes the film even more indicative of these themes. Visitors to the movie's official website have the opportunity to simulate Nev as he chats with Megan online, meaning that they can pretend to be an imitation of someone who is simulating a con- versation with a fake person. "Cat- fish" detractors might view the experience as completely inane and devoid of real-world meaning. To others, it's just the next logical step in our lives. ' __ _