Rule number one about Fight Club; you do not talk about Fight Club. Rule number two about Fight Club: you do not talk about Fight Club!

Rating: 9/10 (13 May 2010)

1999 was a great year for film, with many great films releases that year: The Matrix, American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, Toy Story 2, The Sixth Sense are just a few examples. To join them was Fight Club, a controversial film based on a popular novel and directed by David Fincher, a man whom career was on the up.
Edward Norton play an insurance clerk who was suffering from insomnia and struggles to deal with it. He starts by attending support groups for people suffering from long term illnesses to cope with his issues. Yet that disappears when Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) starts to attend these meeting and takes away their edge. Whilst on a business trip the man meets Travis Durden (Brad Pitt), a soap maker and salesman. They quickly becomes friends and move in together into a dilapidated house. They also start to take joy when having fights and the popularity of these fights quickly expand into Fight Club. But under Travis' leadership Fight Club soon takes an even darker turn and it's up to the man to stop him and his plot.
Fincher is a very skilled director and with Fight Club he gives audiences his most stylist film. He uses a lot of visual trick and starts to play around a lot more with the camera. He shows confidence with CGI and the nature of how it was used was fitting for the film. There is a dark style and tone throughout, Fincher does not hold back the violence or some of the more grim aspects of the film. There is a lot of dark humour in the film, particularly during the early part of the film. Fincher with a screenplay by Jim Uhls which is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk tell a very complex story and there is a lot of themes throughout. There are themes about people trying to find their identity, how the human mind works, criticisms of modern advertising and consumerism and how people could use it or become hypocrites, how a cult would function and of course, man's desire for violence and destruction. Despite it's title this film does not focus to much on the underground fighting. This is an intelligent film which will allow the audience to think.
There is some excellent acting in this film with a great cast. Pitt and Norton were brilliant in the lead roles, with Pitt having a potent charisma throughout whilst Norton is effective as an everyman character of the piece. Bonham Carter was also great in this film and these 3 actors were a dream team together.
An excellent film.