I kinda missed the boat on the whole "Dark Knight" opening weekend in my blog, I apologize for that and for not picking up the slack lately, but here we are with what my possibly be the biggest movie in recent history."The Dark Knight" is an intelligent super hero movie, one that doesn't play down to fans of the genre or fans of movies in general. For me it reminds me less of past super hero movies and more of the darkly lit seediness of that wonderful world known as film noir. Of course Batman was created at the very beginning of the genre in the 40s and it's great that Christopher Nolan the director references that. I love the look of this film from the opening bank robbery sequence that was inspired from Michael Mann's "Heat" to dark and unsettling interrogation scene with The Joker.
This is the kind of film that dares to get under your skin, it could pander to younger crowds but it goes places I was surprised to see. The main perpetrator of all this uneasiness is Heath Ledger as The Joker. It's a brilliant performance that should be getting some awards attention at the end of the year. The games the Joker plays in this film turn sadism as if it was an artform, it's a funny, creepy, and downright scary performance.
The other stars are no creampuffs either. Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors working today and like he showed in the original "Batman Begins" he's capable of showing the turmoil of the man behind the mask, not to mention he gives us a reason why Bruce Wayne was a Billionaire playboy. Old pros Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are solid and supply the little bit of comic relief to break the tension. Maggie Gyllanhaal is able to do a lot with the little she is given filling in for Katie Holmes as Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes.
Then there are Batman's main allies with Commissioner Gordon (Understated brilliance by Gary Oldman) and the new "White Knight" in town D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). It's mainly Batman, Gordon, and Dent that are the pawns in the Joker's game, and Eckhart is especially effective as we witness his fall from grace.
As good as all these performances are, this film is really Ledger's show all the way, just the way he struts down the street in the film, or the way he clicks his mouth with his tongue is just so sinister and inventive. It's too early to say exactly what Ledger's legacy in the film pantheon will be, but his Joker just goes to show the kind of actor we lost.
4 stars out of 4
1 comment:
The style of this movie is it's greatest asset. I liked the way it eschewed the jokey one-liners that have plagued action movies for decades and comic-book movies up until now. Heath Ledger actually had some of those ("my card") but played them (wisely) "straight." The camerawork too in DARK KNIGHT was impressive from beginning to end. So do you think that there will be a push to put Ledger in the LEAD actor Oscar category a la Anthony Hopkins for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. An argument could easily be made for this.
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