What's it about: A man gets so frustrated with his mundane life, mundane job and materialistic condo life. He doesn't sleep and he goes to all sorts of health group sessions to meet other losers and feel a bit better. Still something is missing as he finds another person called Marla Singer who is also a roamer like him without any diseases.
Then he meets a person called Tyler Durden who happens to be everything that he aspires to be in life. He loses his apartment to a fire, moves in with Tyler, starts a fight club which soon becomes really famous among scores of other frustrated men.
Soon a big movement called 'Project Mayhem' starts. More people are recruited by Tyler who gives them all sort of assignments that mock at the materialism in society. These men are all bald and live their lives in teams and in a set pattern. Marla Singer is also very much a part of Tyler's life and they have so many spectacular sessions in bed.
Then one day, Tyler ditches our man and he disappears. Our man is perplexed and slowly he figures out in a shocking turn of events that he actually is Tyler Durden. He had created an alter ego to make himself feel better and this alter ego is all that our man wanted himself to be. He dresses like how our man wants to, looks like how he wants to and fucks like how he wants to.
People around him knew all along that Tyler Durden is only one man, Marla knew it too. But, our man believed all along that Tyler Durden is a separate individual. He had been hallucinating on many occasions about his alter ego. He had caused so much pain to himself thinking that Tyler Durden is doing it to him. He had been imagining that Tyler had been fucking Marla, and not him.
Finally he figures it out after a major struggle with his alter ego and after so many self inflicted punches, bruises and bullets. But, he can't stop Project Mayhem because of the sheer strength of his army and he watches all the credit card companies biting the dust in the end along with his re-united lover, Marla Singer.
Hits- Brad Pitt as the imaginative, alter ego of Tyler Durden turns in one of the most stylish performances in motion picture history. His looks, his body, the fighting style, the attitude and the dialog delivery are a class apart.
- Edward Norton is overshadowed by his alter ego, Brad Pitt. But still the sophisticated and neat style of Norton is immensely like-able. The final half hour where he struggles with himself is a desperate treat to watch. How can he hit himself so convincingly :)
- The male oriented dialogs are a major plus. They spew aggression, attitude, desperation and frustration. The "I am Jack's" series of dialogs are something totally new.
- The twist in the tale about the identity of Tyler Durden is shocking.
- Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer is another performance that is brimming with attitude and carelessness. Her unique relationship with Tyler that starts in the group sessions, is new to cinema.
- The tryst with the world of therapy sessions is new too. All sorts of groups. Testicular cancer, tuberculosis, brain tumor etc etc.
- Nice information thrown in here and there about the making of soaps too :)
Misses
- The method that Tyler uses to eliminate his alter ego in the climax is highly debatable. He shoots himself in the mouth and still comes out alive. People around him say that he is a tough motherfucker. But still this scene is a bit too much. He even talks properly within minutes of the bullet firing.
VERDICT
The very best guy movie that is full of style and attitude. The climatic twist that brings in the hallucination element is the cherry on the cake.
