By this time tomorrow, it will be gone.

No, not the snow, but a darn good movie.

The critically acclaimed Six Degrees of Separation will slip out of town by Friday morning. And everyone who hasn't seen it yet will be missing a great film.

Six Degrees is a scathing social satire -- Edith Wharton on helium -- set among the hoity-toity of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

These are folks who let dirty dishes sit around until the hired help comes in on Tuesday. They're beautiful and pampered -- and utterly useless. And director Fred Schepisi skewers them.

The film centers on the lives of the middle-aged, wealthy Kittridges, Flan (short for Flanders) and Ouisa (short because it's sooo cute).

Flan (brought to supreme smugness by Donald Sutherland) is an art broker and the ultimate sellout. We're never explicitly told so, but he's a man who gave up his artistic side to make mega-bucks hawking Kandinsky and Manet to the Japanese.

Flan, who refuses to believe that the 1980s died, is a man so morally bankrupt that he blurts, "I want to get down on my knees and thank God for MONEY."

Ouisa is no angel, either. She's a shameless social climber and name dropper. But there's a spark of humility in her, just a faint glimmer.

The Kittridge's calm social swirl of luncheons and benefits is interrupted by the arrival of Paul Poitier, a well-dressed, well-spoken young man claiming to be the son of the famous actor.

Paul (the surprisingly good Will "The Fresh Prince" Smith) staggers through their door clutching a stab wound. He's hurt, bleeding on his Brooks Brothers' blazer, and he needs their help.

Patched up, he then charms Flan and Ouisa by making them dinner and talking the talk of the Harvard educated. They offer him a bed for the night and $50 in return.

It turns out that Paul needs help for more than a cut. Although he looks every bit the boarding-school snob and can swim effortlessly in these rarified social circles, he is an impostor.

As the film evolves, we learn that Paul was a rough Boston kid picked up by socialite loner Trent Conway (Anthony Michael Hall). Paul's agile mind latches on the potential for social mobility and he strikes a trade. For each name in Trent's address book, he sheds a piece of clothing.

Three months and half an alphabet later, Paul is fluent in the language and manners of the upper crust and dying to fit in. He finds happiness for one brief evening in a posh penthouse parlor, talking of Salinger and Godot.

But he loses it all when Flan throws him out after catching Paul and another man in bed. When other rumors spread of other couples (all alphabetically below L) meeting up with Paul, the Kittridges find they have a charming story to tell over tea.

That story takes a human turn when Paul calls them again, seeking out their friendship. He has conned other couples but only the Kittridges gave him happiness. When Ouisa's conscience stirs her to help, we finally see compassion in her.

As for the rest, Six Degrees doesn't let us forget how useless the upper crust is. After all, as Ouisa chirps, "It doesn't seem right sitting here on the East Side and talking about the revolution."

But it makes audiences wish for one.