The biggest shock about The Social Network -- beyond the fact that it pretty much lives up to the hype and will easily rank among the best films released in 2010 -- is how brilliantly it marries performance and technology to create Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The Greek god-like Olympians were always going to be The Social Network's trickiest illusion, but director David Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, co-stars Armie Hammer and Josh Pence, and the visual effects team help make the twins into two distinct-but-identical beings. Still, will their collaborative effort be undone come awards time by something as innocuous as bad breath?
During a scene early in The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin are shown discussing Facebook on what's supposed to be a cold Boston evening. A noted stickler for details, Fincher doesn't stop at just teeth-chattering and hand-rubbing to show how cold it is; instead, he opts for what one has to assume is computer-enhanced breath. Big mistake. At best, the breath looks shoddy, at worst it looks like the bong hit that Jason Bateman ripped in Extract.
Contrast that with the wonders of the Winklevi and the scene looks even worse. Per, EW.com:
"For shots that included both twins at the same time, [actor/model Josh] Pence stood in for the second twin; Hammer later went into a studio, where he strapped his head into a harness to film that twin's face and voice, which was then digitally superimposed over Pence's face in the film. The result is a sort of hybrid actor with Hammer's head and Pence's body. Intricate split-screens and rotoscoping were also used for some shots. Piece of cake, right? "After Benjamin Button, you go, 'It can be done,'" says Fincher. "Give us a case of Red Bull and a weekend, and we'll figure this out."
Fincher and company were able to figure out Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss with a case of Red Bull, but couldn't make foggy breath look real? Too bad. Check out a quick glimpse of the offending scene in the trailer below and leave your complaints in the comments section. Or on your Facebook page.