Rambling machismo dressed up as rebellion

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2001)

Possible spoilers within.
This movie deserves a slap. It's a good idea with a suitable Hollywood twist and some competent performances. But what's the point of everybody being convincingly obnoxious? I didn't care about any of the characters. They all deserved a kicking.
We're given very little of Edward Norton's motivation for beating himself out of his mind-numbing conformity and boredom of the American Dream. He could just be a mind-numbingly boring person. After all, he doesn't seem to have any friends. He's driven but it's a vague drive outlined too quickly. I suppose we should be thankful in a movie that ends up being too long, but more of that later.
His answer to his malaise is violence but we know the point of the movie is not going to be that violence is a good thing so we go with it. We accept he's a good character doing bad things. In the course of his badness he meets other good characters doing bad things and some bad characters doing bad things too. Everybody's got a beef against the world but then none of them have any redeeming qualities to justify anybody giving a rat's @r5e.
"First rule of Fight Club: do not talk about Fight Club. Second rule of Fight Club: do not talk about Fight Club," So just where did all these other members come from anyway? Somebody's breaking rules one and two at an alarming rate. Nobody's telling any women though because the point is only men turn to violence, right? The point is not women can't fight, right? That would be politcally incorrect, and factually inaccurate to boot. WWF may be fake but those muscles on those girls are as real as their boobs aren't and each and every one of them could have Ed Norton and Brad Pitt for breakfast. But no, to represent the femenine side let's get Helena Bonham Carter, a fine actress required to do a great jpb of playing a helpless and pathetic waif. Luckily she's surrounded by big, strong guys to take care of her. If it had songs, it'd be "Camelot."
The big problem is that by the time we get the release from the paggering, it's too late. As quickly as Norton burst out of his conformist stupor, he snaps out of his self-delusion, but then we get another half an hour of waffling to an ending that again is lacking in motivation, and what was wrong was right but is wrong again. Or something.
I do like non-Hollywood-convenient endings, but they have to make sense and this one didn't. It felt like they had some days with the crew still on contract so they kept filming and adding onto the end until they figured they better use up the SFX budget to finish it.
Like I said, it was a good idea. Stanley Kubrick tried to deal with similar violence-as-rebellion ideas in Clockwork Orange. He didn't feel like he succeeded so withdrew it where he could. At least Ed and Brad didn't have to learn a load of gobbldeygook slang that made them sound silly. Malcolm McDowell not needed as vocal coach then. But I'm not reviewing Clockwork Orange. My point is it's volatile material to be handled carefully, and Fight Club goes too many rounds punch-drunk and out of it's weight category. [Sorry, that pun was below the belt]