What do Trent Reznor, Justin Timblerlake and “the other Michael Cera” have in common? Nothing besides all having a hand in The Social Network and this is my review.

Last night I was lucky enough to catch a pre-release screening of The Social Network, a film based on the turbulent events and relationships surrounding the birth and rise of Facebook. The movie is based on The Accidental Billionaires, a (reportedly loose) nonfiction book by Ben Mezrich.

For those expecting a point for point re-enactment of Facebook’s conception, I advise to take this film with a grain of salt. Like all things Hollywood, there is a considerable amount of embellishment and an added layer of gloss (The creator of Napster is no Justin Timberlake in real life). But if you’re willing to accept the movie’s instances as sort of “near-fact,” you’re likely to enjoy it thoroughly. David Fincher’s direction is on par with his previous works (notably Fight Club and Se7en), and Trent Reznor’s stylistic yet simple musical score keeps the films emotions securely fastened to the scenes that evoke them.

The only caveat to this adequate depiction is that Mark Zuckerberg as a character is too ambiguous. The films depiction of Mark Zuckerberg is not far from many peoples love hate relationship of Facebook. Viewers may find it difficult to decide whether Zuckerberg is supposed to be the honorable hero or the notorious villain. He comes off as having the sarcasm and whit of the techie-Harvard grad to make him likable, but at the same time is also that jerk in High School who cheats off your test and gloats about their “A+”. Today with over 500 million users, Facebook is still going strong and this film will garner a successful outcome as well.

Ultimately, I can’t say this is a movie that I love but it is definitely one that I “Like” (Yup. Totally had to throw that in somewhere) and a film worth seeing.