Dark Knight of the Soul
It comes as no surprise that the new Batman movie took in record ticket sales for its opening weekend. The accolades for Heath Ledger's bittersweet performance as The Joker are well deserved: the rolling of the eye, the licking of the lips all contribute to the creepy look and feel of this character, especially wonderful sporting a strawberry blond flip. Some people just want to see the world blow up around them, says Michael Caine playing Bruce Wayne's homme d'affaires preparing him for the illogic of his enemy's motivation as menace to Gotham. The Joker in drag runs from a hospital, exploding in syncopation, Ledger a fashion risk in nurse garb with tell tale blacksocks and shoes. The Dark Knight is filled with nods to Hitchcock and, ironically, despite a level of incoherence, tells a good story. The Batman franchise has a
noteworthy history of evoking psychological nuance: memorable is Danny de Vito's Penguin; let's just say the various back stories The Joker offers all involve razors to one's face and unforgiving family: Love Gone Wrong. He is not alone. The Joker expresses his kinship with Batman: "We're both freaks." Christian Bale's Batman is appropriately bland by comparison to his cartoon foe; even when escorting three gorgeous blonds into a room he seems stiff. He's not having fun. The guy with the desired girl is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, a politician who becomes Two Face. One side was burnt off thanks to one of The Joker's pranks exposing bared gums and incisors, dislodged eyeballs, a Picasso-esque orgy of disfigurement. Handsome Eckhart appeared on The Today Show with co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal to talk about Ledger's final performance, how happy he was to play this role. Eckhart told a story of the cast competing to download Ledger's ipod that brought to mind a concert at the Beacon Theater to celebrate Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan experimental bio pic in which Ledger plays one sixth of the rock legend. He M.C.'d for part of the excellent night, breaking from his laconic image to introduce musician friends. Some critics seem relieved to find Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes in the character of Rachel. Unfortunately Gyllenhaal's Rachel doesn't have much to do except stand up to the Joker's antics and savor long and hard kissing with both Bale and Eckhart.
Not bad at all.
And Two Face is not the only transformation in town. Check out New York Times culture reporter David Carr's tell-all cover story in The NYTimes Magazine this week. Who knew this droll and witty writer had such a drug feuled, sordid past? I can't wait to see the book.
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