I was 12 years old the summer my mom sent my brother and I to Puerto Rico and grandma’s for the summer. We managed to talk to my grandmother into taking us to see Total Recall. Let me premise the next few sentences by saying that I have always been too easily influenced and therefore scared by horror movies. I have a problem with anxiety and horror and thriller movies tend to aggravate that part of my personality. I walked into that movie as cute as can be, lipstick, hair done in a super cute pony tail, a new jumper, cute shoes, the whole package basically. I walked out that movie with my hair askew, my lipstick gone and my jumper stained (no, I didn’t wet my pants). That movie upset my fragile little 12 year old mind and left me a quivering mess, and I loved it.
I bring up that story to illustrate how I felt when I walked out of The Dark Knight today. I was quite literally trembling as I sat in the dark with the credits rolling. I turned to my husband and asked him how he felt. He was momentarily speechless, so I told him how I felt. I was a wreck.
Harvey Dent has won election for the next District Attorney, he is dating Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne’s old flame from Batman Begins, and is out to clean up Gotham fighting the mob, cleaning the police force from corruption while using the system. Bruce is starting to feel like maybe with Dent, he can start to let go of being Batman. With the arrival of the Joker, all his and Dent’s plans to let go of the Bat disintegrate.
Christian Bale was incredible as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. Gary Oldman was amazing as Jim Gordon. He has a lot more to do in this movie as head of the High Crimes unit. This movie also ushers in his appointment as police commissioner. Aaron Eckhart was amazing. He built the character of Harvey Dent so well that his downfall is all the more tragic. With his performance you can believe the computer animated disfigured half.
Maggie Gyllenhaal was a great substitution over Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. I bought her performance and her role as a Prosecutor working for the District Attorney. Katie’s, ahem Kate’s performance was not quite as believable. Her Rachel seemed almost shoehorned into the role so Bats could have a love interest. Michael Caine was amazing as always as Alfred. Alfred has always been my favorite character in the Batman mythos. Then we have Lucious Fox, who runs Wayne Enterprises and develops Batman’s gadgets. Morgan Freeman plays him perfectly tongue-in-cheek. The way he drops hints about what he knows and pretends to not know is just brilliant.
Heath Ledger’s Joker was terrifying. I think my husband put it quite nicely, Heath Ledger was not in that movie. Ledger disappeared into his role to the point that the audience can’t even see the actor for the character. The twists and turns in this movie… I am left speechless. He proved in the end that he can bring down the best of us to break Gotham’s spirit.
The three of us (my husband’s best friend came along) left that theater wondering, where can we go from here? How can Nolan top this?
