I am going to start this review with the disclaimer that I was told the ending twist before seeing Fight Club. However, the drama kept my attention and threw me for continuous loops. The movie takes place in the present day when it was filmed in 1999 in a city which is on the outskirts and a bad neighborhood. The story in driven by the inner monolog of Edward Norton’s character by his voice over narration. Edward Norton’s (Moonrise Kingdom) character wakes up on a plane on his way home and Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt (Oceans Eleven), is now sitting next to him. These two characters enter into a dysfunctional friendship. In between these two dysfunctional friendship is Marla Singer, played by Helena Bonham Carter (Dark Shadows), who has a sexual relationship with Tyler.
The movie opens up to Edward Norton’s character barely sleeping because he is an insomniac. He’s unable to sleep because he is emotionless. To over this issues he goes to support groups and gets addict. This is where he meets Marla Singer, who is also a support group addict. This is the first relationship shown with the narrator. People do not seem to get close to the narrator. Tyler he meets after Marla and becomes his closest friend, even though he appeared next to him when he woke up on the plane. Tyler lets the narrator stay with him when his apartment blows up and they start fight club. It was in a parking lot where Tyler ask him to hit him as hard as he can and they start fighting. Men come to gather and watch and then ultimately join and be apart of fight club to feel alive again.
One of the members from the support groups, that the narrator went to, becomes a member of fight club. His name is Bobby, played by Meat Loaf (The Rockey Horroe Picture Show), he had testicular cancer and with the two of them confiding in one another they had a genuine bond. Marla and Tyler’s connections to the narrator had it’s dysfunctional side but with Bobby he was his one true friend that - spoiler sorry - when he is killed and the men are saying to just bury him in the garden. Bobby is evidence and the men did not want the police to find him, the narrator says that is wrong and he’s a person. He begins screaming out his name Robert Paulson, which all the men begin chanting. They come off as brainwashed saying that in fight club they don’t have an identity but in death they do.
Fight club brought men together in a way that Tyler liked to say was a near life experience. That doing their daily life, that is where they were dying, but at fight club they were alive. The narrator breaks it down by showing him encountering another fighter and the voice over says that outside of fight club they do not acknowledge one another. At a restaurant the server is another fighter and they do not interact beside looking at one another. Fight club is the release.
Fight club seems to give the narrator confidence in his life at work. He is first shown as a timid character that does as he’s told and does not stand up or speak for himself. Then, as the movie carries on he begins to have a psychological break down. For example in one moment where the fighters are given a mission to start a fight with a totally stranger, he starts one with himself in his bosses office. He’s covered in blood and making it seem as those his boss had just beaten him.
As the story line begins to unfold he becomes paranoid of those around him. Tyler is leaving the narrator out of his plans. He is now replaced as Tyler’s second hand in fight club by one of the recruits. A second segment of the fight club begins. He is not told about what going on with the group. None of the members will give him information which adds to his paranoia.
The filming angles of this movie works to add to the paranoia going on in the film and the twist to make this movie get in the viewers head. This movie’s story line is created to make you think. With the camera’s fast cuts back and forth between Tyler and the narrator speaking gives the speed to interaction pulling you into the story. When his paranoia begins to be extreme it makes the viewer almost uncomfortable by Tyler. In one scene where Marla is over and the narrator begins to have an honest conversation with her, he is distracted by this noise Tyler is making down stairs. Marla is shown behind the narrator making her appear insignificant. The angle on Tyler is almost eye level even though he is at the bottom of the stairs he takes up most of the screen. He is shown to be the stronger voice and the one in power. Many shots of Tyler is as if he’s the main focus when the narrator, who is doing the voice over and the story is told from his perspective, his made small. The narrator is not given many close ups and the camera is generally a wider view when showing him.
The casting for this movie was well selected. The acting of Edward Norton and his relationship with Helena Bonham Carter’s character was dysfunctionally splendid. Their relationship starts off as being a love hate relationship. Edward Norton shows pure hatred for Carter’s character telling her his hatred for her because she was posing as a fake victim in these groups, just like he was. The two split up their groups but Carter does not keep up her side of the bargain which leads her to reaching out to Norton’s character. In this plea to see him she talks about how she’s going to kill herself. Tyler then takes over the situation beginning a sexual relationship. This twisted love triangle adds to the confusion but well constructed story of Fight Club. Are they friends, do they care about each other, or is Carter the crazy one? This relationship is a small piece to this complex story that the director David Fincher, writers Chuck Palahniuk (who wrote the novel) and Jim Uhls (screenplay) weaved together.
Disclaimer for if you choose to watch this movie, do with an open mind. There is vulgarity, foul language, sex, and violence. Besides all that the story line, characters, and well done filming will keep your attention. Even with being told the ending I looked for flaws in the story line and there were some, but not enough to make the story fall apart. One thing that irked me was how Tyler first showed up on the plane. That was not believable for me. Norton’s character falls asleep with a women there, and wakes up and suddenly Tyler is there, they have the same briefcase, and he’s the extreme opposite personality of the narrator. Even with this flaw the rest of the story plays out to make that scene become an over laps to make Tyler so real and believable. The more confused Norton’s character gets and confused as to what is happening in his life, as are you. The twist to this movie were unpredictable. Sure it is not perfect. However even if the big twist is revealed, the way it is revealed is well done.
