Yeah, I'm a bum -- but I've still got an opinion...

43 days without a post?!? Mea Culpa and pass the ketchup. I've been a bum. Blame my descent into the holidays, but there it is. You blink, and it's award season and the parental movie fan, dependent on home viewing finds himself desperately behind. Whither True Grit? Black Swan? Their siren song is calling.

But I did see The Social Network. I must preface that I'm a big David Fincher fan, though I was on the not-so-much side of the bus with Benjamin Button. And dammit if I'm not still on that same side of the bus here. It started off great, but it just didn't connect for me. This is the great Aaron Sorkin script everyone's been lauding? For me, the staying power of this movie was akin to Up in the Air from last year. Very contemporary and I'm afraid history won't be to kind to it. I don't think it's a significant as it wants to be. I loved the "Winklevi" (Armie Hammer is terrific), but ya know, it's distracting that it's an effect. Likewise, when characters are ostensibly outside talking on a cold Cambridge night, I'm too aware of Fincher's CGI "breath," and that took me out of the damn scene.

Painfully, Andrew Garfield's betrayed Eduardo is the weak link in the film. The guy just doesn't have the acting chops and earnestness will only get you so far. He just wasn't doing it for me and sadly, this is the guy that will be the new Peter Parker/Spider-man in the tweeny reboot in 2012. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this..."

You can't fault Fincher's overall direction, he does a great job evoking a sense of place and making the laptop world seem fraught with peril and high stakes. But let me be honest -- it's really hard for me to get too broken up or invested in the trials and tribulations of a bunch of affluent, entitled Harvard students. Boo-freakin'-hoo! Not when it's this talky. Also, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg -- the main character -- is a complete cipher. We never learn anything about his background, who he is, his fears, his dreams, his family -- nothing.

So I'm not ready to UnFriend David Fincher, but after this and Button I think I have to say I think Christopher Nolan has pulled ahead of him in terms of compelling storytelling. Here's hoping he redeems himself next Christmas with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.