Best in Show: Jesse Eisenberg

The young star deserves our full attention for a career-best performance as Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's The Social Network.

With stellar word of mouth keeping The Social Network atop the box office charts for another week, it's time to spotlight one of the year's subtly brilliant star turns. Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Facebook's creator "Mark Zuckerberg" (quotes intended, as the film doesn't aim for biopic mimicry or veracity) is the kind of lead performance that never fully gets its due. Though Eisenberg successfully carries the picture, it's a recessive and unshowy portrait.



"Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster," Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) barks at Zuckerberg in the uncomfortably funny opening scene. This train wreck of a break-up sends Zuckerberg jogging back to his dorm room to wreak Internet revenge, setting the film's beautifully spun creation myth in motion. The beauty of the line is that it’s absurd, but rings true. You can see immediately that this computer genius is not easy to deal with on an emotional level, his brain breaking sound barriers than his rapid-fire mouth cannot. He doesn’t know when to shut up and doesn’t have the social filters to play nice. The beauty of Eisenberg's performance is that even though you'd never want to date someone so exhaustive or rude, your eyes and ears stay glued to his entertaining line readings and subtle flickers of (confused) feeling under the mask of an unfeeling character.



Saturday Night Live recently took a swipe at Eisenberg in a news skit. Andy Samberg’s version of Zuckerberg doesn’t like the casting. “Sean Parker gets Justin Freaking Timberlake and I get Jesse Eisenberg? It's like, 'Hey we're making a movie about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Steve, you’re going to be played by Brad Pitt and Bill, you're going to be played by a cardboard box with glasses glued to it.’"

It's a funny bit, but the joke’s on anyone who places fame over talent. Timberlake has fun as Parker, but the film completely belongs to Eisenberg, who is a more naturally gifted and experienced actor with an impossibly difficult character to sell. He sells it so well you end up understanding the impossible numbers in Mark Zuckerberg’s real life bank account.



It’s hard to love someone so condescending, but it's also hard to not admire someone who is so sure of his own truth. Take the expertly rendered scene where he refuses to connect, which Eisenberg plays differently than the scenes wherein he merely has trouble connecting.

Lawyer: Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: No.
Lawyer: Do you think I deserve it?
Zuckerberg: What?
Lawyer: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Lawyer: Okay—no. You don't think I deserve your attention.
Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try. But there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention; you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.

Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

Zuckerberg’s detachment is not always an innate emotional weakness, Eisenberg reveals, but can also be viewed as either defensive armor or authentic self-regard. Eisenberg gradually sculpts a sharp charismatic portrait of a genius, but he’s a brave enough artist to chip away without ever smoothing over the imperfections. Lesser actors would fear the off-putting angles.

Eisenberg probably won’t be nominated for an Oscar—the number of leading men so honored at 27 years of age is slim—but he deserves our full attention.

Click the poster to find movie times near you for The Social Network:

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