Fight Club (1999) * *

Directed by:  David Fincher

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham-Carter, Meat Loaf

(spoilers present)

Fight Club wastes good performances and an intriguing setup with a second half that flies off the rails.    Does it even know what is ultimately about?    How is the twist supposed to make any sense when what we believed to be two different characters occupy different areas of the same room?      Perhaps in the novel from which the film was based, this idea makes more sense, but in a film it leaves me shaking my head.     After all, we see Edward Norton standing in the crowd of onlookers while Brad Pitt makes a speech, so how can they be ..?  

I may have given more of the spoiler away than I should have, but it's tough to ignore since it is among the big reasons I didn't care for the film.     I also think the concept of the fight club itself went awry.    Its members turn into obedient stooges for Pitt and Norton's anarchic compound, even though Pitt sells the idea of a fight club as a way toward personal freedom.      That's likely the point, but Fight Club belabors it to the point it loses any meaning by the time the conclusion finally comes.      The ending is so far removed from the beginning that I felt like I watched a double feature featuring the same actors.  

Edward Norton plays an unnamed man (billed as The Narrator) in his early 30's experiencing insomnia and angst over his tedious life.     He holds a job of little importance and he is lonely.     He attends twelve-step and support group meetings in order to feel better about himself.     He isn't an alcoholic or have cancer, mind you, but the other members do, so he feels better about himself as they suffer.      He meets Marlene (Bonham-Carter), a chain-smoking brunette who, like him, attends these meetings to boost her own sagging self-esteem.     He doesn't much like her, mostly because she sees he is a fake just like herself.   

His life takes a dramatic turn when he meets Tyler Durden (Pitt), a slickster soap manufacturer who behaves aggressively.     Tyler is everything The Narrator is not and does things The Narrator wouldn't do.     Tyler thinks he can show The Narrator the way to more enlightenment and personal joy through beating each other up and otherwise acting like a creep.     Tyler and The Narrator duke it out outside of a bar one night.    A crowd of onlookers marvels at the sheer brutality of the beating they give each other.     They are encouraged to beat each other up, not in a mob setting, but in one-on-one fisticuffs.    Tyler and The Narrator start "Fight Club".    The first rule of Fight Club, Tyler tells his audience, is "You don't talk about Fight Club."    Apparently, people ignore this rule because at the next meeting, the group has doubled in size.   

What the Fight Club leads to is an uneasy extension.     The group takes part in not only beating each other up, but attacking strangers, bystanders, and wreaking havoc on otherwise innocent people.     It is brutality on a massive scale and this is where I get off the train.     Fight Club goes from odd to just plain unsettling.     Tyler and The Narrator become drill sergeants of sorts; abusing and belittling members of their club who do their bidding without questions.     How do we get from an underground fight club to a mini-fascist regime?    How did one thing lead to the next?     Fight Club is thought-provoking, but not in a satisfying way.     The point of all of this is lost on me.  

Then comes the Big Reveal which, after a few moments of thought, makes little sense.     We now know why The Narrator is unnamed, but I can't get past the other logistical questions it raises.     How is The Narrator able to shoot himself in such a way to kill off his alter ego only, who doesn't even physically exist?     How can Tyler and The Narrator be one and the same, but yet each actor occupies physical space when required?     How come no one looks at them funny when they are talking to each other in public, as if one person was actually talking to himself?     Big Reveals only work if they answer questions, not if they create more questions.