The late Heath Ledger is the best thing about The Dark Knight. He doesn't resemble anything he's ever done before. It is like there is somebody else under that Joker makeup. Right away you know the acting here is superb. However, there is something familiar about his portrayal of the Joker. When I closed my eyes for a few seconds and listened to him, it hit me. It's Billy Crystal. Yep, crazy as it seems, in many scenes Ledger sounds and acts like Billy Crystal playing the Joker, without humor, while harboring a death wish. At least, that's my take on it - which might be mine alone. That doesn't diminish his performance in any way. He is just great, and deserves a posthumous Oscar for Best Actor. Hope it happens.
The rest of the cast are good enough, but the film is much too long. Trying to seriously cover two characters as complex as the Joker and Two-Face is too ambitious for one film. I have a few other minor issues with this movie:
- I think the choice to have Batman "grunt talk" whenever he is in costume gets almost ridiculous. Christian Bale must have a very sore throat.
- The Joker seems to be able to set up massive explosions whenever and wherever he pleases, which is a bit too unbelievable, even for a comic book plot.
- The segment about the Wayne employee who is going to reveal Batman's identity does not advance the story sufficiently to warrant the large amount of screen time it requires. Overall the script could have been tighter.
- Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal would not have been my first choice for the Assistant DA role. She's too glum. I would have preferred to see someone like Kate Beckinsale (star of Underworld) in that part.
- The uber-hype being thrown about by too many film critics declaring this movie to be so socially topical, and a seminal event in cinema - it ain't!
Despite these issues, the Dark Knight is a film worth seeing, if only for Heath Ledger's mesmerizing performance as the Joker. |
