A few days late, I'm reacting to the Golden Globe wins for The Social Network and The King's Speech. Jesse Eisenberg's Facebookland got way more awards than the other major contender where about class warfare and class consciousness factored in the plot.
This surprises me not at all. From the opening scene where fictional Mark Zuckerberg dumps Erica Albright because he thinks she hints he doesn't have the pedigree to make it in the clubs, the story becomes about retaliation against elitism. It kicks unsuspecting Americans in the guts that a software product that so connects people around the world now started out as in such an elite atmosphere. The sweet irony that fictional Mark is no better at connecting with people at the end of the movie than at the beginning justifies the price of admission. Great flick and very deserving.
The King's Speech, also a great movie, does not resonate so well with Americans. We get all a-tingle at the obligatory scene where Myrtle Logue finds the Queen of the Realm in her parlor panders to our expectations, but the class divisions seem more murky to us. The power of the class-transcending friendship is a bit lost on us Yanks.
Good for the Golden Globe. I wonder what the Academy will do.
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