In praise of … Aaron Sorkin | Editorial

This week's Golden Globes surely clinches it: Aaron Sorkin is this generation's successor to Ben Hecht. The co-author of The Front Page would surely agree, and see a kindred spirit in the winner of this year's best screenplay award for The Social Network. Both men stuff their dramas with zingers, overlapping lines and dialogue that if it came any faster would cause the actors to hyperventilate. Sorkin's latest work, on the origins of America's favourite website, Facebook, shows this off to a tee. Undergraduates dump each other with lines like: "Going out with you is like dating a Stairmaster." Dollar-eyed businessmen chime in: "A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? … A billion dollars." And somehow, this story of how a bunch of overeducated and underattractive Harvard undergrads did a bit of software coding and started their own business becomes utterly riveting. Sorkin made his name writing the long-running drama series The West Wing, but spinning yarns about the corridors of power in the most important official building on the planet is surely easier than turning disputes over intellectual-property law into a critical and commercial success. Sorkin and the film's director, David Fincher, have pulled that trick off. The Sorkin style has its limitations, of course. What he offers audiences are essentially stories about smart people written by a smart person. His works are witty rather than wise, pacey not profound. But they offer all the dizzying pleasure of a ferris wheel.