Scrappy.

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2016)

After whinging to his doctor about his insomnia, a frustrated office worker (Edward Norton, whose character is simply called The Narrator) is advised to attend a support group for testicular cancer to see what real suffering is like; there, he experiences an emotional release that finally allows him to get some much needed shut-eye. Consequently, The Narrator becomes addicted to support groups, feigning illness to attend, but the appearance of another such 'tourist', Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), makes him feel awkward about his dishonesty, and he once again struggles to sleep.
While flying home from a business trip, The Narrator strikes up a conversation with travelling soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). The pair part company at the airport, but when The Narrator discovers that his apartment has been blown up in a freak accident, he calls the number on Durden's business card. The guys meet up and strike up an unlikely friendship which sees The Narrator discovering another solution to his sleep issues: bare knuckle bouts with Durden. Eventually, other guys looking for a release from their mundane existences join in the fun, and Fight Club is born.
For a film dealing with ***Spoiler Alert!!!*** dual personality, it seems only fitting that I'm in two minds about Fight Club.
I appreciated the sentiment that 'you are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank, you are not the car you drive, you're not the contents of your wallet', but disliked the script/story as a whole, which is full of contrivances, inconsistencies and quasi-intellectualism.
I loved the dark humour and the brutality of the fight scenes (although cannot accept for one minute that men would line up to be beaten to a pulp), but I hated director David Fincher's showy approach to the rest of the film, which is over-reliant on slick CGI trickery (that actually looks very dated by today's standards).
I admired Edward Norton's performance, but disliked Pitt's, and hated Bonham Carter's.
I hated the silly twist that could be seen a mile away, but was amused by the subliminal image that appears seconds before the end, and enjoyed hearing The Pixies over the closing credits.
To reflect my mixed feelings about Fight Club, I give it a middling rating of 5/10.