The Social Network

One of the big new films of the year, directed by the respectable David Fincher and written by the renowned Aaron Sorkin.
Visually, it is a cut above the Hollywood norm. Fincher uses an interesting palate of colours, sharp greens and blacks jumping into moody angles. This is as close as modern Hollywood will get to expressionism, and all the better for it. It is a shame that Fincher does not take this further; it is very much background, a kind of visual flair he almost seems to want to hide, for commercial reasons. There is a suggestion that could have been developed more, a sort of grotesquery, that works well with the general themes of the harshness and leeriness of the characters to one another. There are some interesting shots in this film, some nice uses of sharp lighting and compositions, so we generally give Fincher thumbs up.
The plot really follws quite similarly, in that it has an interesting idea, but maybe doesn't carry it quite as far as it could have. This theme is the theme of hating everyone. The characters are pretty much entirely unsympathetic, again, they are really a cabinet of grotesques, though they never quite manage to be completely hateful cipher of a society a more biting portrait could have made them.
The dialogue keeps the entertainment, very fast, and we appreciate that. It occasionally falls into too much comedy, but that again reflects the general slight restrainedness of the film.
This film is about the loneliness of the individual, within the society, the technologies, the times. It is a picture of the times, but does perhaps pull its punches a little too much. Decent, better than most of the Hollywood dross.