by David Fincher, 1999.
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto, Meat Loaf, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt.
Rating: 3/10, 7.5/10.
Ick. Um.
Everyone loves this movie. I do too, in a way. I love how well-done it is, though what it accomplishes with its technical skill is a bit...well, not to my liking.
And I certainly love the acting. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are perfect, as is Meat Loaf, surprisingly (after all, this is the man who gave us "I Would Do Anything For Love," and whose two other film roles that I’ve seen were in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Spice World), and Helena Bonham Carter plays her femme-extremely-fatale character so amazingly that I want to marry her.
But aside from the film’s skillful crafting, what is its objective? Because I’m positive that it has one, and I’m not sure I like it. As I see it, it can go one of two ways—either the film is sending a good message that I approve of (I don’t want to be too specific here, because I want other viewers to come to their own conclusions unbiased), but going about it in entirely the wrong way, or it is sending a completely vile message that makes me want to ralph. Either way, I can’t fully back this film.
But see it, please do. When you do, though, keep reservations. Don’t thrust yourself wholly into it like people seem to have been doing. Keep a close watch on your reactions, and try to figure them—and the movie—out for yourself.