From Alex Reynolds Sent Sat, Oct 16th 1999, 06:33
From Alex Reynolds Sent Sat, Oct 16th 1999, 06:33
Fincher's visual direction lends itself well to 'Fight Club', a graphically violent tale of dementia and schizophrenia, making use of fluorescent/greenish lighting, rotoscoping, subliminal editing, and polyangled shots with a clicking, driving electronic score courtesy of the Dust Brothers. In fact, the tense, kinetic sound gives a great deal to the film's dark, hypermodern, nightclubbing atmosphere. Visual effects were stunning -- with the detailed plane fusilage explosion remaining the one scene that will haunt the viewer for days -- and clever, such as the rotoscoped love scene. Content-wise the film suffers from the inevitable product placements, making the message seem to bend between hypocracy and detached irony, but the morbid humor keeps things balanced. The narrative as a whole maintains plausibility up to a minute from the film's end, which is surprising given the dreamlike subject matter. While I was not as impressed as much with the movie as with the original book, the director's decisions regarding the finale were interesting, from the purist's point of view. Fincher's older works have endings that both surprise the audience and appease the Hollywood producers; with this film was he trying to surprise/shock/piss off that part of the audience which read the book? Or was this a cop out to the film financiers?