Fight Club (1999)
– I’ll say this for David Fincher’s Fight
Club: it holds up much better on a
second viewing. I came to it years ago
under the auspices of anticipating the allegedly brilliant twist ending, but
after predicting it fairly early on I found myself disappointed. I won’t spoil the ending here, though I will
say that the movie is much more successful when you know the reality-bending
twist in advance, particularly since the self-congratulatory way in which it’s
revealed may seem abrasive to viewers ahead of the game. Edward Norton plays a pitch-perfect nameless sad
sack (known only as “The Narrator”) who begins to find meaning in his life
after the charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) begins a franchise of “fight
clubs” in which men can take out their anger and recapture their masculinity in
a consumerist and depersonalizing world; Helena Bonham Carter costars as Marla
Singer, an intensely damaged individual whose self-hatred leads her into the path
of Tyler and The Narrator. At its best, Fight Club is classic Fincher: dimly-lit, intensely violent, and monomaniacal
in its examination of deranged, deviant personalities. Pitt’s performance in particular stands out
as one of his best; Tyler is infectiously exuberant and sadistically nuanced,
allowing Pitt to show off the full range of his talents and recalling his nutty
turns in Twelve Monkeys and, to a
lesser extent, Burn After Reading. What the film leaves you with is a slightly
unsettling commentary on modern society that asks you to sympathize with The Narrator
before abandoning you as his plans go awry; Fincher wisely avoids moralizing by
leaving the ending ambiguous, asking the audience what is to be made of Fight
Club and Project Mayhem. If nothing
else, it’s astounding that this is the same director who did The Social Network!
Hable con ella (2002)
– It’s been a year of firsts here at The Cinema King, reviewing silent films (The Italian) and James Bond films (Skyfall) for the first time. Now your first foreign-language film,
courtesy of Pedro Almodóvar. Hable con ella (“Talk to Her”) is an
unusual film, many things at once without leaving much room for the audience to
get comfortable in one genre. Through a
series of interconnected events, caregiver Benigno (Javier Cámara) and travel
writer Marco (Darío Grandinetti) become friends in the hospital where the
comatose loves of their lives sleep. Marco’s
relationship with the bullfighter Lydia (Rosario Flores) becomes more tragic as
flashbacks and surprise reveals detail the secret she was keeping from him
before her injury, while Benigno’s one-sided friendship with ballerina Alicia (Leonor
Watling) becomes more unsettling as we learn more about the extent of his
devotion to her. I’m not sure what to
make of this movie; it accomplishes a great deal without leaving much closer
for the audience, and it seems that Almodóvar’s film is essentially a treatment
of misinterpreted romantic relationships.
To that end it’s a compelling one, helped by strong performances and a
willingness to let the audience put some of the major pieces together. Grandinetti’s turn as Marco is particularly
compelling, his emotional vulnerability and forthright nature reminding this
viewer of Gordon Pinsent’s moving turn in 2006’s Away From Her. The film is
troubling in places (some unintentional, as I found myself a bit perturbed that
the women in the film are literally reduced to bodies), but I think that Almodóvar
is after just that – a destabilizing of assumptions and the revelation that
everyone has something to hide, be it an emotional trauma in the past or an aberrant
secret in the present.That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We had “Fight” today – tune in on Wednesday for Flight!
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