The Social Network - Thoughts Part 2

I wanted to add a few more thoughts on The Social Network.  If you ever carried out a conversation through texting or online chat, many times the topic can be on two things at once.  While one person is answering the other, the other person will start a new topic so that you are both talking about different things.  I wonder if this is what they had in mind with the dialogue of the first scene.  The topic they are on switches all the time and they aren't on the same page.  I know Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher both have talked openly about how the script was over 2 1/2 hours long, but without cutting anything they made the movie under 2 hours.  They had the actors act faster.  Well it's good they made a shorter film for the studio, but what is the artistic benefit?  I guess today we get our info faster so maybe it's mimicing that or maybe it's like a chat, but I'm not sure this is a good artistic choice.  

An important flaw I see in the screenplay is the ending.  The story is basically two court cases that explain how facebook was formed and how two different people sue Mark Zuckerberg.  The film ends when Eduardo is finally cut out of his share of facebook and when the site reaches one million members.  The problem is that when the hearings are over, the solution is Zuckerberg pays them off in a settlement.  It feels like the entire movie is exposition to tell you how facebook started.  Good screenwriting has a character who wants something and overcomes obstacles.  Conclusions and results are earned.  If the end result is a settlement there's no work.  I'd want to see something more worked out than an easy deus ex machina, we get to the end and after making his money he paid them off.  

I'll add that there is a great irony at the end and a good message to young people in America today.  Zuckerberg has one of the largest successes ever and fails miserably in his personal life.  To have a whole life a person must be succeeding in all areas of life, personal, physical, career, relational, mental, and spiritual.