The Social Network. 2010. USA. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book by Ben Mezrich. With Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Rooney Mara. 120 min.
David Fincher's clinical dissection of Facebook's origin story reveals a profound Preminger-like sensibility in its ethical focus and formal precision. Through meticulously balanced widescreen compositions that simultaneously isolate and frame characters within institutional spaces, Fincher creates a visual language where power dynamics are expressed through spatial relationships. Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg operates in a state of studied ambiguity, his aggressive brilliance masking motivations that even he seems unable to access, suggesting a protagonist fundamentally unaware of his own psychological drivers. Aaron Sorkin's dialogue crackles with verbal tension as the narrative unfolds through competing depositions, creating multiple subjective realities where truth remains elusive. The film's coolly detached perspective, enhanced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's Oscar-winning score, refutes easy moralizing while examining how wounded masculinity and social rejection can transform into technological empire-building. Like Preminger's finest works, the film's elegant formal restraint contains volatile emotional undercurrents, culminating in a final scene that achieves devastating power through suggestion rather than declaration.