highs and lows

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2004)

Here's the one-sentence review of "Batman Returns" - any scene with Catwoman is great, and any scene with the Penguin is awful.
There are exceptions, of course, but the quality of this film undeniably see-saws based on these characters. Whereas Catwoman is genuinely sympathetic - isn't it horrible, watching a nice woman get brutally murdered by a heartless tycoon? - the Penguin tries to evoke sympathy but is ultimately too grotesque to move me. Am I really supposed to care about a character who bites people's noses off, plans to murder children, and spits up loads of forest-green goo? It doesn't help that DeVito overplays the part terribly, burying any potential for subtlety by screaming out all his lines. Listen to how he mangles "they wouldn't put me on a pedestal, so now, I'm layin' them on a slab." That line could be pathetic and sad, or maybe scary, but the way DeVito plays it, it's merely loud.
Thankfully, DeVito is the only acting dud here. Pfeiffer plays it just right, volleying between her vampish and cutesy personas with incredible skill. Walken is also great; he chews the scenery like a madman, but that's exactly the kind of acting that's called for in a movie where even the sets are outrageously over-the-top. And of course, Keaton is still good, although one can understand why he quit after this film, since he's given very little to do.
On balance, "Returns" is the best of the series, because there are many genuinely emotional moments. But there's a distinctly grotesque quality to the movie that forces it slightly out of the mainstream, which is a shame - its relative commercial failure led to the series' descent into mindless popcorn drivel, starting with the next entry.