The Dark Knight

THE DARK KNIGHT | A FILM BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

THE LATE HEATH LEDGER AND CHRISTIAN BALE STAR IN LATEST BATMAN ADVENTURE

And a movie that is definitely worth your money.

Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale, The Prestige) is still running around, saving Gotham City. But there is “a new class of criminal,” the Joker (Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain). The Joker has been successfully swaying men to his organization and then disposing of them so he can take all the money. He controls several banks in Gotham City. Meanwhile, new Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking) has promised to rid the city of all criminals with assistant DA Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, World Trade Center, who replaces Katie Holmes) at his side as co-worker and girlfriend. When the Joker begins attacking those close to Batman and heads of Gotham government, the Dark Knight realizes that he must turn himself in before those close to him, including Rachel, die.

Where can I begin? I’ll start with Aaron Eckhart. I have never seen him in a movie before, and I was impressed. As Harvey Dent, Eckhart has an interesting character, one who is portrayed as a hero and villain at the same time. He does it perfectly, and we don’t know whose side he is on until the end. Second is Alfred (Michael Caine, The Prestige). I enjoyed Caine in Batman Begins as well as The Prestige. And he does not disappoint here, again the push behind the hero who often provides humor. Third is Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), who is also that supporting guy inside the authority that every superhero needs to sway attention from. But now that I think about it, does Spiderman have one? No. This is what makes Oldman’s part so great; it’s a rarely used character idea and Oldman pulls it off greatly. For the mediocre…

Wait. You didn’t think I was going to talk about this movie without bringing up Heath Ledger, did you? His performance as a character I barely know is one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen (FYI: Soon I will be blogging about my Top 6 acting performances ever). His performance seemed so real, and I truly felt “menaced” by the performance. Nolan does a great job of directing so that we get right in the Joker’s face, catching his facial expressions and movements. I would be a proponent of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. From movies I’ve seen so far this year, only Eckhart and Shia LaBouef for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull could compete in my book in that category. And they still might lose.

Other than those four, the script and cinematography are both outstanding. The only problems I saw were average performances from Gyllenhall, Bale, and Morgan Freeman (as Lucius Fox).

But when we think about it, this movie is all about the Joker. And although I enjoyed seeing Nestor Carbonell (the mayor of Gotham) taking a break from his role as the ageless Richard Alpert on LOST, Ledger really stole the show, no pun intended.