Mary the Borderstan Movie Fan’s column on movies runs every two weeks. Mary Burgan is a retired professor of English and association executive. Her previous reviews are listed at the end of this post.

I am a latecomer to Facebook. I joined three years ago when my son told me that being on Facebook was the main way to get to see pictures of my grandchildren. I have now been friended by 47 people, and six are waiting, partly because I don’t know who they are.

I am not friends with two of my teenage grandchildren, for they informed me with subtle charm, that “Grandma, I reserved Facebook for my friends from school. You can e-mail me, and I’ll answer right back.” I wrote back that “I understand.” But I still worried about what they were sharing with all the world except me on their Walls.

Having seen The Social Network I’m still worried, for the story of the invention of Facebook is so full of sex, lies, and You Tube, that I fear for my grandchildren’s reputations and/or sanity.

I do recommend The Social Network, as a fascinating movie, though I doubt that those who are not on Facebook will get the thrill of recognition that comes when the film reveals the origin, say, of the category on the subscriber’s “Wall” that tells whether you are single and what your romantic preferences are. In addition, the film has very clever dialogue and a fantastic piece of acting by Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the putative inventor of Facebook.

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