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When this first came out I saw the trailer and didn't fancy it. Then, it gradually became clear that it was getting almost unanimous critical praise, so I decided to go and see it. I didn't like it. I didn't hate it, I just came out at the end feeling absolutely nothing, as if I had been watching a blank screen for two hours.
However, the overwhelming critical consensus that this was a brilliant film, the seemingly endless awards/nominations, and recommendations from friends convinced me that I must have been wrong. Maybe I had just not been in the right mood at the cinema... So i gamely rented the DVD and sat down determined to like it this time. And, probably for this reason, I did find the first hour more engaging than I had done on first viewing. After that, gradually, the blankness began to set in again and by the end the same indifference I had felt before had returned.
So, i give up - hats off to all those who like it, I hope you continue to do so, but I just don't get it. It seems to me a very dull film about a very dull subject, based on the glib ironic concept that the founder of the world's biggest social network can't connect with the girl he really wants to (an irony which is, incidentally, totally fictional). It doesn't really say much about Facebook itself, other than that it's a bit shallow and superficial (shock revelation!) and as for the also unanimously praised 'whip-smart' dialogue - well, that was lost on me too; I maybe chuckled 2-3 times in 2 hours. Finally (and before I start ranting - I'm determined not to be one of these reviewers who gets FURIOUS when something they don't like is popular!) I felt that the film had no narrative climax. It really just trundles along (and you know where it's trundling to, as it's all told in flashback) until it gets to 2 hours and then sheepishly says 'Er... that's it now. Here are some captions about what happened to the characters after this bit, so you know it's the end.... er....Bye now'.
Ok, I'll stop now, that last bit is getting near to ranting territory. And anyway, why do I always feel more compelled to write reviews of things I don't like than things I do....? And why have I spent about 6 hours of my life (2 viewings + a couple of hours of reading internet reviews etc) trying to force myself to like something I never wanted to see in the first place?? What's wrong with me??
Ooh, end on a positive note: some good acting, especially Eisenberg and Timberlake I guess..
