Note to Hollywood: if you want people to go see your movies, make them good, or better yet great. Case in point; The Dark Knight, directing-God Christopher Nolan�s follow-up to 2005�s back-on-the-right-track Batman Begins. His reversion to the basics and jettisoning of everything goofy about the Batman franchise had fanboys screaming with joy and the general public getting in on some of that action to boot. No small feat. For the sequel we have a hefty dose of pre-release hype (Heath Ledger�s performance, the stuntwork etc), a solid-as-granite script and the return of all of our favourite actors, plus some new faces (bye bye Katie Holmes). It sounds foolproof, and to all intents and purposes this movie is just that.
It�s a rare thing indeed for me to see a film in the cinema and immediately connect the dots to see its greatness. After all, I�m paid to review films (well, not monetarily, more in respect. No, wait, not that either), so I have to go home and chew it over a bit, rethink the entire plot, see through the performances and give a more accurate judgment of what went right and what fell flat. The Dark Knight is not perfect, but it�s about as close as one can come to that elusive goal. You�d really have to dig deep and be a bit of a bastard to find any problems with it, and no one in their right mind is going to knock a star off just cos� Maggie Gyllenhaal is the least attractive actress working in Hollywood right now. Though I did come close.
The film begins not too long after the end of Begins, with Batman�s presence severely diminishing the various organized crime syndicate�s power. With no way of moving their ill-gotten gains they hole it up in several mob banks, making the money a sitting target. Enter the Joker (Ledger). After ripping off one bank in a brilliantly planned and executed heist, he introduces himself to the mob bosses and offers to do for them what they cannot: kill the Batman. Of course with this Joker nothing is quite as simple as it first appears, and soon everyone in Gotham City is feeling his pinch. Even the mighty Batman is powerless as the libertine Joker, unconstrained by any rules and norms, repeatedly envelopes him, Det. Jim Gordon, and new Gotham City D.A. Harvey Dent in increasingly daring and violent schemes. Even when it appears that they are successful in stopping him, the Joker simply falls back on his next immediately-executable plan. The more they tighten their grip, the more pieces of his puzzle fall through their fingers.
It is this increasing desperation that drives the film and all the main characters, both good and bad. At the start the forces of good and evil had arrived at some sort of understanding, with both sides aware of the power and limitations of the other. Once the Joker arrives on the scene the entire board is thrown into the air and the pieces start to land in new and often-unpleasant positions. Though his strength is nothing compared to the mob or the forces of law and order, it is his sheer unpredictability and willingness to go further than anyone else that causes everything to go to hell. Worst of all, the citizens of Gotham City, who are mostly spared the worst of any previous criminal enterprises, are suddenly drawn into the fray. A scene close to the end on two ferries full of people, each with the power to destroy the other and save themselves, is one of the most gripping moments in the film.
Most of the credit for this white-knuckle experience goes to Nolan, whose mastery of every facet of movie-making is beyond compare. Not only does he and his brother, Jonathan, provide a first-class script that consistently ties-up every loose point the plot produces, but his vision of what a true action film should be is unparralled. This is truly a thinking-man�s movie, with believable and fully-fleshed characters, outstanding performances, fluidity of direction and movement, and edge-of-the-seat excitement. Despite being in excess of two hours the film never once drags or loses its believability, a very rare thing for any film conceived from the pages of a comic book. This Batman is truly a man torn apart inside, this Joker equally so. Neither has a back-story that loses credibility, they are both simply very messed-up people who find themselves on opposite sides of the law, matching their wits in a battle to the end.
There is nothing in the film that one can use to criticize any performance, certainly not Heath Ledger�s. With the pre-release hype touting him as a posthumous Oscar-contender I was prepared to be very disappointed by what I presumed was a sick attempt to associate a young actor�s sad demise with one of his last cinematic roles. On this count I was hopelessly wrong. Ledger is truly magnificent as the Joker, providing one of the silver screens most iconic and disturbing villains. His lip-smacking, make-up wearing creation dominates every scene, regardless of whether he is in it or not. He delivers his lines in such a deliberate, slow, crackly way it permanently puts your hairs up on end, and conveys to all and sundry that this is a man whose capacity to destroy everyone and everything is limitless. He wishes not for money or power, only, as Alfred so aptly puts it, �to watch the world burn�. In comparison the superb performances of Bale, Gyllenhaal, Oldman, and especially Eckhart as Harvey Dent, have to take a backseat. In this I mean no disrespect, Eckhart is also Oscar-nomination worthy, and in any other year might deserve to win handsomely, but it is Ledger whose performance seers the memory long after the lights go up, and it is he who deserves to be remembered for what he created.
Sadly I have nothing to criticize this film, not even Gyllenhaal�s horrible face. It is a masterpiece and one that will surely crack the increasingly stratified Oscar nominating jury, mastering as it does both commercial and critical success so perfectly. I say this now, knowing there is a long wait till the awards start being doled out, but I doubt I will see anything better all year. If I do though, you can be sure to read about it here. |
