By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Jesse Eisenberg has just gotten a lot more fans.

And so has director David Fincher.

Together, Eisenberg and Fincher have teamed up for what is definitely one of the best films of the year, if not the very best, The Social Network.

Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, Zodiac) has done seemingly the impossible (with a lot of help from Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay) — made a movie about a social-networking site incredibly entertaining.

Eisenberg (Zombieland, Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale) stars as Mark Zuckerberg, boy millionaire co-founder of Facebook, and he is perfectly cast.

From all accounts, Zuckerberg has never been the most likable person in the world. Thanks to Facebook, he also is one of the richest.

Zuckerberg is portrayed as a brilliant Harvard student, but a social outcast. Early on, you know the guy is woeful when it comes to meeting woman. His girlfriend dumps him in the opening scene because of his horrible people skills.

It is that social miscue though that leads him to spend more time on his computer and more time developing a social program that will enable he and his fellow Harvard brethren a better chance to rate and meet girls. “Facemash” as he called it, eventually evolved into Facebook. A few years later, and a couple of lawsuits, Zuckerberg is a billionaire.

The Social Network is mostly about those lawsuits, which serve as the center of the film, and told in flashback style.

The players include his best friend and Facebook partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield); Napster co-founder Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, who also far exceeds Zuckerberg in being unlikable; and a pair of twins from Harvard, who are also central to the Facebook saga, claiming Zuckerberg stole the idea from them.

You can’t help but dislike all of them, with the possible exception of Saverin, probably the only good guy in the bunch (and the one who gets the proverbial rug pulled out from under him by his business partners), and that some how just makes The Social Network all the more fascinating.

It’s Eisenberg who is the key though. Time and time again, his egocentric portrayal of Zuckerberg, filled with wit and sarcasm, set this film apart, even if you want to kick him in the teeth. It’s no wonder the real Zuckerberg just donated $100 million to the Newark, N.J. school system. He must have seen this version of himself in an early release and it was one way to get some guilt release. That said, you still can’t help but feel sorry for the guy.

It is hard to believe that Facebook is less than seven years old, and so many billions of dollars have exchanged hands since then. In the ever-changing Internet landscape, Facebook, like AOL and Napster, could just become one more dead dinosaur in the foot path of technology, but The Social Network will always be a great archeological find for the film fan.

Critic's Rating A

Rated PG-13

oooo

It has been a really sad week for movie fans.

Tony Curtis, best known for playing the “Cary Grant” half of the oddball couple (Jack Lemmon was also splendid) in Some Like it Hot died this week at the age of 85. Among his other great roles: Sweet Smell of Success and playing serial killer Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler.

Arthur Penn directed a few of my favorite all-time films, Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man also died earlier this week. He also directed The Miracle Worker. He was 88.

Lesser known, but unforgettable for fans of the film Marty, was Joe Mantell. He was Marty’s (Ernest Borgnine) best friend and is remembered for the line “Hey Marty, whaddya feel like doin’ tonight,” several times in the film. He received a best actor in a supporting role nomination. He also had a brief, but memorable roles in The Birds and Chinatown. Mantell was 94.

Finally, Sally Menke, longtime film editor for Quentin Tarentino films, was an apparent victim of the extreme heat in Southern California this week. She was 56. Menke edited virtually all of Tarentino’s biggest films including Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Inglourious Basterds.