moviereview - The Dark Knight

THE DARK KNIGHT

	The Joker plunges Gotham City into chaos and takes the new DA Harvey Dent, Gotham's last hope with him. Can Batman stop the psychopath without loosing his own soul?	score 4+	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman

Director
Christopher Nolan

Screenwriter
Christopher Nolan
Jonathan Nolan

Country
USA / UK

Rating / Running Time
M / 142 minutes

Australian Release
July 2008

Official Site

If you thought 2008 has been a superior blockbuster season, a tornado is about to tear it all apart. Having re-energised the Batman franchise, Christopher “I won’t do a sequel” Nolan delivers the year’s best, a stunner of such ferocity that audiences are well advised to duck for cover. And it’s not just from dazzling action, exhilarating set pieces and thrilling adventure (all present in spades); it’s the elemental beast that makes The Dark Knight an adrenaline soaked best of the best.

For if you thought it was all bat suits and kooky makeup, Nolan is about to tear that apart too. This is a battle for the soul, specifically that of Gotham City, but on a broader scale where good and evil begin to blur, where demons escape to dance in the shadows. “I don’t want to kill you,” cackles a demented Joker, “you complete me”. Scary stuff. Mind-bending, emotionally draining, distressingly scary stuff. Nolan isn’t here to entertain, he’s offering up a world about to flat-line, and one not only found on the cinema wall.

Picking up where Batman Begins left off, Gotham City has a new DA. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is a white knight whose success might be enough to give Batman (Christian Bale) a normal life. Enter the psychopathic Joker (Heath Ledger) who wants more than money or power. He wants to break Dent and plunge Gotham into the fiery hell of chaos. For without Batman, the Joker is nothing. Let the games commence.

It’s well known that the anxiety and sleeping disorder that led to Ledger’s untimely death was due, in no small part, to the Joker. It’s all here on screen. His performance is, to borrow from Peter Travers, mad-crazy-blazing brilliant. It’s such a tour-de-force that Ledger virtually disappears, leaving us to face this hound from hell alone. As he sniffs around prey like the feral creature he is, flipping between unruly sadism and stomach-churning masochism, it soils the mind. Even when he tips at funny, it’s a sickening experience. The effect is like having your brains scrambled with an evil eggbeater.

Nolan elicits similarly exhilarating performances across the film. Michael Caine purrs as Bruce Wayne’s voice of reason; Gary Oldman’s stalwart Jim Gordon makes honour exciting; Eckhart earns extra credit for an unforeseen character crunch following devastating murder. The Dark Knight is an exhausting experience that takes up residence in the black spaces inside your head then leaves you with a nasty case of apres-film anxiety disfunction. It will be the first thing you think of at 4am.

// COLIN FRASER