Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has now reached its 500 millionth user and it was only a matter of time before a film was made about how it all began.

The Social Network is directed by David Fincher, and tells the story of Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) who attends Harvard University. He wants to be accepted and tries to get in to an exclusive Harvard club by creating a site called Face Mash, allowing other students on campus to rate girls. This becomes an instant hit and crashes the system due to too many hits.

A couple of other students see Mark as their way to create a social interaction site for Harvard students and want to bring him on board to help achieve this. Mark develops their idea along with the help of his friend Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) in to The Facebook.

As its tagline explains, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” and that is just the start of Mark’s journey. He has to face challenges such as getting sued, losing friends and becoming isolated due to his  ways of thinking.

Six years on and the phenomenon of Facebook is said to have made Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in history.

If you’re hoping to see a film conveying complete truth and real life events then maybe you shouldn’t see The Social Network. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, has stated in interviews that “the film looks fun and shows a lot of fiction with a different spin on the story, but that must have worked best for making it in to a film”.

There are certain elements of realism, however, which, when coupled with the film-friendly fiction, make it well worth watching. Eisenberg states in an interview that “the blogging Mark does in the film mirrors the actual blogs Mark Zuckerberg  wrote in real life”. Tiny details, such as Mark dressing in flip flops and hoodies – which was his actual dress sense when at Harvard – add to his computer geek image.

Garfield (Eduardo) said in an interview how “David Fincher did so much research of the people and places before making the film” and I feel this really comes across, making compelling viewing from start to finish.