A Punch to the Face Never Hurt Anyone

Sweat mixes with blood as it runs down the tip of your nose. There is a sting in your forehead where the blood seeps from. You take your hand to the cut and realize you’re just watching David Fincher’s Fight Club. The only thing happening to your body is mental and your mind is taking the trip of its life.

Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel with the same name, Fight Club tends to be clever around every corner. The Narrator is our protagonist whom happens to have insomnia. Maybe not the greatest defect in a character but it works in the dark environment you are set in. Realizing that the only possible help are group sessions that help him sleep at night, he decides that signing up for other therapy sessions like survivors of cancer would improve his mediocre life even more. When all of his belongings blow out of his apartment window, he is left without anywhere to live except one option. Tyler Durden, a soap salesman that has all the qualities that the Narrator wished he had. Tyler and the Narrator’s lives take a turn when philosophical reasoning meets society. Fight Club’s philosophies are insane, outrageous but most of all true. The cleverness of the dialogue is fantastic. It doesn’t just interest you. It makes you think about things that never cross our minds. “Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?” The statement isn’t denying religion, it’s giving a reason to think twice about what you believe. Not many movies tend to venture deeper then the opening of the wound. Fight Club dives deep to find the source of the pain.

Edward Norton and Brad Pitt do a phenomenal job together. Their reactions to each other are to a tee, and if you didn’t know any better you’d think they were twins. Norton pulls off the downtrodden protagonist with a pale complexion and bad hair cut. If you look into his eyes you can see the change waiting to happen inside him. Pitt on the other hand charms people with his spiked hair and trendy clothing. All of his dialogue rolls off the tongue making the audience want to believe every word that leaves his mouth.

Fight Club will take you to a world you’ve never realized before, reality. With its captivating message and outstanding acting it deserves more credit than it is probably given. Once you reach the final stretch, Fight Club will have you saying “Where is My Mind?”