Too good to be bad , but it is

Rating: 4/10 (29 June 2000)

Fight Club begins with a promising half hour and falls downhill from there . Edward Norton gives a brilliant performance as a depressed office worker driven by capitalism . He narrates the film , guiding us through his pathetic and hopeless life . I was immediately taken in by the movie's slick visual style , and Norton's performance is especially convincing . It is here the movie begins to crumble . Funny how it's possible to pinpoint the exact moment when it starts to turn sour . It is when Norton meets Brad Pitt's character on an airplane . He's a neo-facist who teaches self-liberation through violence . Norton is intrigued and joins his group of recruits who act out their rage by pounding on each other in dark cellars . Once Norton moves in with Pitt the movie begins to pander and get off track . It becomes more like watching a very bloody remake of The Odd Couple . I was still hopeful though , until the film self-destructs with a contrived suprise ending that's totally contradictory to many of its earlier events . The suprise endings of Magnolia and The Sixth Sense worked , because they interlocked with their themes , but the ending in Fight Club looks like it was added on just to give it a kick . Then there's the final scene , which is illogical and serves only as a cop-out , as the movie ducks responsibility to its real theme , Norton's unstable mental condition . The material was here for a compelling film , but Fight Club never explores it . Instead , it falls into standard , formulized Hollywood mush . Seeing Fight Club , I realized you can have great ideas for films , but unless you use them well , and find just the right note , great ideas do not necessarily make great movies .