Fight Club Review

The first rule of this movie is, do not talk about it. Of course reviewing it means talking about it, so I guess I can't be in the 1999 drama Fight Club, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. Directed by David Finchner (Se7en, The Social Network), the film is one of those that just grabs you by your shoulders and shakes you all up while cackling maniacally.

The movie begins with a Narrator (Norton) holding a gun in his mouth, then flashes back six months, and explains that he is suffering from severe insomnia. Under advisement from his doctor, the Narrator begins attending a testicular cancer victims' support group. From here, the narrator becomes addicted to support groups of all kinds, until another "tourist" shows up, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). On a business trip, he meets a colorful soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Pitt). They swap information, and end up getting a beer together after the Narrator's neatly Ikea furnished apartment blows up. Needing a place to stay, the narrator moves in with Durden at his large but destroyed house near a treatment plant of some sort. The eventually begin blowing off some steam by fighting in the parking lot of a bar, but it quickly gains interest from others, and blossoms into a sort of support group of its own for men who want to channel their aggression. The club grows in numbers every week and eventually new chapters begin in cities all over. Eventually, a faction of the "fight club" takes it to the next level, led by Durden. They start off as tasks handed out after every meeting, but escalates to the bombing of several credit card companies in an attempt to erase credit card debt. During this event being set up, however, we discover that Durden is a figment of the Narrator's sleep deprived imagination. This leads back to the opening scene of the Narrator holding the gun in his mouth, which is an attempt by the Narrator to get rid of Durden.

The way Norton and Pitt play off each other the whole time is great. Both characters are so vastly different, despite being the same mind, that any other two actors could not have pulled it off. And Carter plays a wonderful go-between that interacts with both characters though out the film. Furthermore, the rest of the supporting cast, such as Meat Loaf and Jared Leto, were darkly hilarious. The cinematography was also superb, casting everything in the film with a sort of grungy and dirty feel. Scenes that take place in normally sterile environments, such as an office, feel as if somebody's smeared dirt over everything and that the lights have been coated in thin mud. It's fantastic.

To be honest though, going into a film titled Fight Club, I expected to see more fighting instead of being taken on philosophical hurricane ride. Not that it's a bad title, it just seems a bit misleading. While the movie does depict fighting, and a fair amount of it if you include Norton beating himself up near the end, the drive of the story comes from something beyond the club itself.

Fight Club takes its viewers to the brink of insanity and back, then blows them out of a 30 story building just for fun. A strong cast, beautifully dirty cinematography, and brilliant writing brings the film far above the average. Not to take away from one of the films quotes, but not talking about Fight Club is a horrible idea.

Final Score: 10/10