Surrealistic Dreams

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2004)

******SPOILERS****** The movie "Fight Club" starts off where it's about to end as Jack the narrator, Edward Norton, looking the worst for ware, recites his story that led him up to where it got him to that point.
Living the life of a 90's yuppie, enslaved by his job and his material possessions, Jack developed a very bad case of insomnia due to the hours he worked and lifestyle he led that made him go for medical attention. Going to see a doctor for
p Jack is told that his insomnia is not the end of the world. If he wants to see real suffering to go to a testicular cancer support group and what he sees and hears from those unfortunates there would make him forget he problems.
Taking the doctors advice Jack go to that support group and is struck by the suffering that those inflicted by that terrible disease go through. He develops a friendship with one of the members of that group Big Bob Paulson, Meat loaf, a former body builder. Because of his heavy steroid use Big Bob not only lost his testicles to cancer but his wife and two sons as well as his money. Not only did Jack feel he was doing something constructive, by crying along with Big Bob, it also help him cure his insomnia.
Jack started going to all kinds of support groups during his time off from work and tried to help those needing his support. Jack also helped himself by his very giving comfort and help to those that needed it. At the meetings Jack noticed a woman Marla, Helena Bonham Carter, attending the same meetings that he attended. It became obvious to Jack that she was not suffering the traumas, like testicles cancer, that those at the meetings were suffering from. It also made Jack very conscious of himself who was doing the same thing.
All this brought Jack's insomnia back with a vengeance and one night he confronted her about being a "tourist" and not being honest in attending these group meetings. Coming to a decision with Marla not to attend the same group meetings they both exchange phone numbers to keep in touch.
Later on one of Jack many plane trips, that's part of his job, he finds himself sitting next to a very interesting man Tyler Durden, Brad Pitt. Tyler happens to have the exact same suitcase that Jack has. Tyler is everything that Jack wishes he could be; free independent and not stuck up with the yuppie lifestyle that Jack so much wants to get away from but can't.
After the plane lands two things happens to Jack that changes his life forever. His suitcase is missing in the baggage department and when he goes home to his high-rise condo he sees that it was blown to pieces by an explosion. This sets the stage that led him to get closer to Tyler and at the same time to get involved with Tyler's pet project the weekly Fight Club matches. These strange events started in the basement of a local bar and also brought Marla back into Jacks life, for better or for worse.
The Fight Club matches also revealed something very deep and personal about Jack that was locked deep in his sub-conscious mind; they changed Jack forever in his thoughts and actions. In depth and surrealistic film about couping with the stress of modern life and how the mind works in ways that we can never understand to get us through situations that seem almost impossible to handle. Explosive ending shows how ones suppressed and constrictive mind can become mightier then the sword when it unleashes itself on an unsuspecting public.