Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2008)

Following David Fincher's masterpiece "Seven", he collaborated with Brad Pitt again to make an adaptation of Chuch Palahiunk's novel "Fight Club". The screenplay by Jim Uhls has much to be desired, however what is there is a major exercise in black comedy and sheer anti-social examples of what is making our society as diverse as possible. Some people could agree with the 'Charles Manson' of modern day society (Tyler Durden-Pitt) and say that our world is turning in a direction of which we cannot follow, and that if we cannot find reason to be different or not cater to the white-collars, then we need to pummel each other to take out bottled up anger that is created during a day in our little cubicles, suffocating in the depths of paperwork prescribed by our bosses and many other reasons to punch holes through our cheeks. Edward Norton is the lead, and does the average Joe justice as the insomniac looking for a way to escape from the day to day life that our environment is nurtering. And, after going to self-help groups for men and woman who have cancer, he meets a mysterious woman who could threaten his relief, a woman who he believes has no such cancer. On a plane a short period after, he meets the man who took control of his demeanor and the very way he talked, thinked and judged society. After a nice talk about air travel, they part ways. When Norton's character returns to his condominium (his sanctuary, the place where he devoted his life, money and time, into the decor and very atmosphere where he could live) only to find it blown to pieces by a gas leak. He calls Tyler. They meet, have a beer and talk about the devastation. They walk outside and agree for Norton to stay at Pitt's house on Paper Street. Tyler Durden requests one favor before he can stay with him: he wants Norton to hit him as hard as he can. The way that Norton's character could only feel good in the arms of someone who is truly in pain, made me wonder. When Durden said "We are all raised to think we will grow up to be rich and famous movie stars," that made me think. But when the two started fighting, the plot took a turn for the worst. Now, the story then goes from a club for men attempting fiendishly to channel the aggression they could not before, turns into a movie about vandalism and bleak terrorizer to our society. The first few words in the book is Tyler saying, "the first step to eternal life is you have to die". The last words are God whispering "we need to break up civilization so we can make something better of the world." Whether or not this is really the case, the thought-provoking sub-text has ample humor, and eventually the story just makes you stop an think, "is that true? Or have I just gotten used to not thinking about the meaning of things?" Raw. Scathing. Satirical and hot. Funny.