Fincher's half

Rating: 5/10 (6 February 2005)

I sat through the first half of this movie with my mouth open. It was so exciting, brilliant, a Fritz Lang for the new millennium. Edward Norton's face. That insomnia that he carries all over him is so magnificently drawn that creates the opposite effect on its audience. I was awake, very awake, sitting on the edge of my seat, devouring every moment, enjoying it like hell. Helena Bonham Carter was a like a great silent movie star doing her first talkie. Pola Negri, Theda Bara. As if this wan't enough, Brad Pitt, and Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt with all its fabulous connotations. Then, can you explain to me why I detested this movie? Why it made me so angry? Can you? I can only tell you that half way through I turned against the movie or the movie turned against me, either way I didn't like it. I felt cheated in the worse possible way. I felt treated like a moron. You start promising me the most unique film experience I've had in a long time but what you delivered was a tired, opportunistic, gimmicky, easy piece of nonsense. Why? David Fincher is one of the most consummated craftsmen American movies have ever had. Don't you agree? He can tell you a story, even something like "Seven", a horror thriller, in a way we've never seen before, at least half of it. He has an eye like no other. That's why my frustration. An artist like that putting himself at the service of something that's not done, not finished not worthy of his talents. You may think I'm being a bit too hard on the man. But let me tell you, it's out of love. I expect so much from him, I've seen what he is capable of. But so far have been only halves. Brilliantly acted, sensational to look at, but halves, just halves. He should look at Fritz Lang, Pietro Germi, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, William Wellman and naturally John Ford, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Fincher already inherited something from each one of them. Now the trick is that it isn't a trick. Half is better than nothing. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not enough.