Dark and delirious yet thoughtful and enlightening

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2006)

'Fight Club' is a movie of a rare caliber, one that makes its points unrestrainedly, its characters dominate the screen with vivacious personalities. It has a dream-like quality to it, but it is excruciatingly real. A reality that gets uglier and more twisted until its stunning ending. Love it or hate it, it's a movie you will not soon forget.
Edward Norton's character, who narrates throughout the film, is a depressed fellow with a dead-beat job, an insomniac who finds his only pleasures in attending support groups for the terminally ill. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Marla, a woman who finds herself in similar straits.
Enter Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt): A young, clever and energetic guy, an activist who rants against the evils of our consumer-driven society. Their obvious differences notwithstanding, our narrator and Tyler strike up a strange friendship.
Things remain on the relatively down-low, until out of the clear blue, Tyler tells his pal 'hit me!'. After they begin brawling randomly to release their natural pent-up aggression, the idea catches on, and they formally found 'Fight Club', a club that lets men be men without the artificial influences of consumerism, or the superficial effects of conformist society.
But as 'Fight Club' gains popularity and begins to spread throughout the country, problems begin creeping up, both within Fight Club and in the personal lives of our narrator and his on-and-off girlfriend Marla.
I think many critics were too creeped out by the dark and violent aspects of this movie, to give it its deserved due for its thought-provoking and intelligent script. Not to mention, its phenomenal acting, which aside from the great performance we expect out of Ed Norton who seems to thrive in these kind-of 'dark' roles, Brad Pitt establishes himself as a truly good actor (not just a 'pretty boy') and is just so ideal for the character of Tyler Durden.
Unless you're extremely averse to dark and violent movies, this is a must-see for its unique and uninhibited storyline and extraordinary characters. It has an ending that matches those of The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects. Its thought-provoking ideas and concepts will be further enlightened after multiple viewings. Not to be missed.