The Social Network: Four things the movie got wrong

'The Social Network,' a new film directed by David Fincher, and based on a book by Ben Mezrich, topped the box office charts in the US over the weekend. But critics of the film say Fincher and Mezrich got plenty of things wrong, from the history of Facebook to the portrayal of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Merrick Morton/Columbia Pictures/AP
From left, Andrew Garfield, Joseph Mazzello, Jesse Eisenberg and Patrick Maple are shown in a scene from 'The Social Network.'

1. The CEO

Mark Zuckerberg may not be the world's most charismatic CEO. But several critics have argued that the depiction of Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" is pretty far off the mark. Over at The Huffington Post, Jose Antonio Vargas, the author of a long recent New Yorker piece on Facebook, admits that Zuckerberg is "no saint." But he points out that no one involved in the movie had direct access to their subject – which Vargas thinks is troubling.

"Eisenberg's Zuckerberg is on autopilot," Vargas writes. "He's not evil, per se, but driven – driven towards what, we're not sure. The filmmakers have absolutely no idea. The real Zuckerberg, on the other hand, has a much more varied personality. Though naturally shy and inherently a private person, he's a noted prankster among his family and friends and, at any given moment, can easily turn serious or comical."

"Insecure is not a word anyone would use to describe him," Vargas continues. "Friendless, he is not."

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