The pre-release hype and grandeur attached to films often generate preconceived notions, but the hype gives an extra something that is essential in the dog-eat-dog opening weekend. In most cases it doesn’t have anything to do with how good the film is. That’s why it’s a shock to see a film like The Social Network that’s even better than the appended publicity.

Network is about the events that lead to the birth of the now-gargantuan social networking site Facebook and its makers.

Co-creator Mark Zukerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is an anti-social Harvard student and probably the most intelligent guy in the room. He has a compulsive social suicide streak and an emotionally distant, egocentric gray personality. A complex performance test puts Eisenberg in a subtle jam as he delivers cutting sarcasm and egoistic pitches that, despite making him a complete jerk, make him a jerk with a heart.

Ego, greed and morals are what give wind to the sails of Network, and director David Fincher handles everything in a refreshing, sincere manner. Network is made in a clear, crisp narrative without overtly decorative camerawork or special effects.

The story by Aaron Sorkin proves that his pen is still the sharpest when it comes to strong and determined characters, and on the ball dialogues. Not for a moment does the mind waver from the astute verbatim or the cast that includes Andrew Garfield as the unsure honest friend, Justin Timberlake as the slick and certainly dubious co-founder of Napster and Armie Hammer who plays the twin Winklevoss brothers. The Social Network is an instant classic and it deserves to be one. — Farheen Jawaid