Narrative Shuffling

Rating: Null/10 (1 June 2001)

Spoilers herein.
Fincher has discovered a specific technique: to attach a studied noir style to an unexpectedly folded narrative.
In ÒSe7en,Ó the folding was simple. A simple detective story with a deliberate logic, usually means the audience gets it, and the detective does too. The game is to foil the bad guy. Here the bad guy wins, defeating us both. A simple trick.
In ÒFight Club,Ó the fold was much more clever, turning the usually trusted narrative into an inventive fantasy.
This is in between the two in sequence and sophistication. It has the same attachment of style to narrative, which is rare in cinematic vision. But as with Se7en, the effort isnÕt worth it because the narrative folding isnÕt all that profound.
Here we have the triplecross scam which in its final twist is not a scam. The folding is simply the tricking of the viewer in precise lockstep with that of the hapless target, Douglas. Another device is old but still has weight: the actors are playing actors putting on a show, simple self-reference. The pretended love could become real. ÒFrench LieutenantÕs WomanÓ did this so much better.
Fincher is evolving. Eventually he will get around to some truly profound notions of narrative folding, and then his apprenticeship with welding style to narrative will be really effective and worth watching.