Trailers for the Facebook film, The Social Network, are everywhere. Cue bombastic voiceovers, romanticised view of college in America, and some overblown and overly sentimental soundtracks. But The Social Network looks to be painting a rather different view of Zuckerberg than we Brits saw during his scripted chat with Cameron last week…
Here, Zuckerberg appeared to be sat in his bedroom, in a sweatshirt, fiddling with his Mac (listen for the pop-pop sound of the volume button), and squeezing out a half smile for Cameron, who’s in a plush suite somewhere in Number 10, wearing a freshly pressed suit and tie.
The Social Network teaser trailer on the other hand, proclaimed Zuckerberg, the man with questionable views on privacy, as “punk, genius, prophet, traitor, billionnaire”. Big words, hard to project onto the discomfiting chat we saw between said ‘prophet’ and David Cameron last week, that’s for sure.
Zuckerberg is played in The Social Network by the ‘serious-older-brother-of-Michael-Cera’ Jesse Eisenberg, and Andrew Garfield (Red Riding, The Other Boleyn Girl) plays co founder Eduardo Saverin.
Yes Zuckerberg will also be wearing a sweatshirt and sitting in his room a lot in The Social Network, but rather than awkward PR stunts with the British PM, we’ll see a dramatic clash of principles, a lot of sticking it to the man, and the classic “I just want to be popular!” trope, which is perhaps very appropriate in this case, given the subject matter, but remains inherently yawn-inducing.
The trailer soundtrack is particularly squirm-worthy. A choir version of Radiohead’s “Creep”, set to sentimental images of baby feet, sunsets, holidays and weddings. It screams ham-fisted profundity-pushing, but then no blockbuster is complete without a Morgan Freeman style character rolling up and delivering a mini sermon upon an impressionable and troubled central protagonist.
The Social Network is going to be cringeworthy, and overblown in lots of places. However, what it won’t do is painting Mark Zuckerberg in a wholly positive light, since the screenplay is an adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires by West Wing’s creator Aaron Sorkin.
