Seen: July 17th, 2008
Format: IMAX
Rating: 9
I'm way behind in writing about films, and I wanted to get one more out before going to bed.
This one is easy.
GO SEE THIS FILM.
Nah, that's not all.
I hate seeing films on their opening. I hate crowds and try to go when no one else will be there. Tuesday afternoon about four weeks into a run is a good time. I am not a morning person. But I bought tickets weeks in advance, paying a ridiculous surcharge, for a sold-out 6AM screening of this film.
And I couldn't be happier.
I didn't really enjoy this film, it's really not a fun film. At some level, you probably won't either. But I was impacted in a way that can hardly be expressed. This film moved me. On some basic level, this film reached into my psyche and shuffled things around a bit.
There's lots of reasons that this happened. Ledger's performance is definitely one of them, but hardly the only one. Nolan's writing and vision is spectacular. Bale's performance is wonderful, just for the space he gives his own character as well as those around him. Oldman is subtly smooth; compare this role to his others and you hardly recognize him. I'll even give some praise to Aaron Eckhart, the man I love to ... well not like so much. Here again, he surprised me.
The film is a visual gem. Forget the action. Simply look at the pictures that Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister paint. The look of the film itself is a huge part of the way it communicates. And not just in the way it uses dark, but the way it uses light as well.
The soundtrack simply rocks. I generally don't like to be aware of a film's sountrack, but I was aware of this one and actually enjoyed it. It's subtle, complex and avoids being as obvious as what we're feed in most mainstream films.
Enough already. If you haven't seen this, go get in line.
And if you have seen it, please don't spoil it for anyone else.
The Good: Great performances and a smart script
The Bad: Living inside The Joker
The Ugly: The lost potential
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