Fight Club (1999)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto Director: David Fincher Screenplay: Jim Uhls, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk 139 minutes Rated R
Review by Donlee Brussel
David Fincher's latest cold, bleak, depressing masterpiece is a 139- min. adrenaline rush. It's a film that stabs you in the heart with a rusty knife and then sprays it with 100% proof alcohol. A film that goes straight for the jugular and leaves you gasping for its entire run. And did I mention how funny this macabre comedy is?
Based on Chuck Palahniuk's intensely provocative first novel of the same name and armed with the most innovative visual techniques, jaw- droppingly superb performances from its stars, and a darkly satirical & original screenplay, `Fight Club' has convinced me that it's one of the best films of the decade.
Hype for this film has been incredibly high and so have the stakes for everyone involved. The book has become a cult classic and rightfully so. Having read the novel myself, I can honestly say the movie is as good, if not better than the book. The brilliant wordplay, the monologues, its originality, all have been brought to life and Fincher has brought them to the next level after that. David Fincher's career peaks with this film, with `Fight Club' he becomes the best director at combining style and substance and never has it been done this well. Fincher has also gotten the best performances out of all his players.
Edward Norton gives another heavily audacious performance as the everyman Narrator and once again proves he is one of the most versatile actors working in Hollywood today. Not only that, but Brad Pitt is back, going all out in anti-mainstream mode as Tyler Durden, delivering his best performance to date. And Helena Bonham Carter portrays her sardonic character with such deadpan panache that if she doesn't get an Oscar nomination in February; I'll be bitching for a very long time.
`Fight Club' starts out as a film about a group of yuppies that start a club where each week they take their aggressions out on each other by way of fights. However, that's only the beginning. Later on, Tyler takes Fight Club up a notch with Project Mayhem, a terrorist group that rebels against society in many ways. Their antics get more and more extreme, right up until its climax where the film peaks. Unlike many other films, the film's ending is very satisfying. `Fight Club' doesn't end abruptly with no conclusion, it doesn't end with a predictable twist, it ends with a nice dark ending.
To tell you any more about the plot would be wrong of me, so stop reading any reviews and go see `Fight Club', the best film I've seen all year.
- Copyright 1999 by Donlee Brussel
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