parallel universe, mild spoilers included

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2004)

Here I go again> I don't know if I am bringing up old or dead issues since I can not read all 1800 plus comments.
Anyway, I just love the way Norton and Pitt play against (or with) each other. Norton's character, although a mild mannered everyman in the start has a potential insanity waiting to come out. Pitt is playing his cool self and of course the twist in the end is meant to be much more complex than what's explained.
There are single frames of Pitt popping up early in the film which is a foreshadowing of him as a projectionist slicing a few frames of porn into family flicks and definitely a hint at that nothing here is what it seems. These single frames also clearly help establish that we are in a parallel universe (or a dream, or Norton-s mind....)
Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) plays like a modern English version of something right out of a 1970s Nouvelle Vague. Perfect.
In fact most of the acting is certainly inspired by 1970s European, namely French, movies. no-one really cares or wonders enough, no matter how extreme the situation they go through. on the other hand no-one goes for overly European/artsy, this is still all very American,just far away from Hollywood mainstream.
Most of the set pieces are amazing. We seem to recognize most of them from our nightmares and they will linger on in our minds long after viewing.
The laws of physics don't quite apply here and all dialog is surreal in a way. As James Berardinelli correctly points out there's a strong resemblance to "A Clockwork Orange", a movie which also seems to play in sort of a parallel universe. Both films deal with extreme violence and to a degree with sex.
I am unable to say to which degree the film's meaning and all other hidden meanings or in/jokes and homages to other movies (there certainly are)were all carefully planned beforehand. Some certainly appeared during the making of this film. I say that because the film's acting and dialog don't look "written" except of course for Tyler's provoking philosophical attacks on our society and smallmindedness, and Pitt delivers those in a way that they sound like coming natural, not preachy or "written". Brilliant.
At the very end we can see one of these porn frames sliced in - as if Tyler (Pitt) is in control of the whole movie we just saw. My first reading was, and remains, there are much more hidden meanings in this movie than can be extracted from one or two viewings and it works on many different levels. Just think about the soap made of human fat or the 1970sh look but 90s attitude of Tyer(Pitt). That cannot only be an exercise in style. Then the medical doctor who doesn't prescribe pills, he would be in trouble with the pharma industry in a real world -check this scene for Pitt appearing for the first time in one single frame if you happen to watch the movie on DVD. There's much more to it all.
If I have time I will go through the users comments (not all of course) and check for some stuff people discovered and spotted in this movie. Looks like there is tons.