Dark, excessive and impressively original.

Rating: Null/10 (26 November 2003)

Fight Club is a fierce satire and the blackest of black comedies. It is so dark that many viewers won't even be able to appreciate the funny side of it - they won't make it past the raw violence and the immoral attitudinizing. However, if you don't mind an unorthodox narrative and you're not easily offended, this is a terrific film.
Beleagured business man Jack (Edward Norton) is suffering from insomnia due to the pressures and tedium of his job. He joins various macabre therapy groups to keep himself entertained, and here he meets like-minded loner Marla (Helena Bonham Carter). However, one evening whilst taking a flight home, he finds himself sat next to an enigmatic, philosophical soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, in a career-best performance). Durden befriends him and one subsequent evening they meet up in a bar, where they eventually end up fighting with each other - not as the result of an argument, but because they want to spice up their existence with the adrenalin rush provided by fighting. They enjoy the event and pretty soon they've set up "Fight Club", a secret society at which men get to lose their pent-up anger by beating each other to a pulp.
I'm not entirely convinced that fighting is the way to achieve the ultimate high, nor am I convinced that to get into a fight is the best way to learn how much of a man you are. However, that doesn't stop me from recognising what an astounding film this is. The bizarre philosophies of Tyler Durden are sometimes outlandish, sometimes agreeable and sometimes downright disagreeable, but they are always entertaining. The exploration of what's going on in the minds of these disturbed, depressed and desperate men is fascinating, perceptive and often troubling, and it really jolts you out of your comfort zone. Fincher directs in a dazzling, flashy style unlike anything you'll have ever seen before, making this a truly original - though ultraviolent - modern masterpiece. The final fifteen minutes or so shoot off the scale in terms of manic revelations, with an incredible twist ending that really shouldn't work, but somehow does. Fight Club is the kind of film which reminds you why you fell in love with the movies!