A very moving, very bold and very important film.

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2019)

Excellent film. One of the best Batman films I have watched (if not *the* best): A well-written and entirely believable origin story. Phoenix's portrayal went above and beyond my expectations - I think this is the best performance I have ever seen from him. The comparisons I have seen between him and Ledger are unfair in my opinion: They both portrayed very different parts of the Joker's history, and they both did an incredible job.
The compassion and empathy I had for Arthur moved me to tears. It was very emotional to watch, and probably would contain many triggers for people with past experiences of abuse. Without exploring his history in detail here, his background resonated with me. His family history and present situation, employment circumstances, bullying and ostracism (both the overt displays and more subtle, insidious ones), deterioration in stability, dissociation and delusion, fury and hopelessness, and even his laughter. I do not have the same condition, but I have a history of laughing or smiling inappropriately in extremely uncomfortable situations (I lost a friend over it a long time ago), when I found nothing funny about them. I felt immense guilt, shame and questioned my morality whenever this occurred.
I understand that feeling empathy for someone who commits murder doesn't sit well with people. I do not condone the character's actions or intend to minimise the devastating impact these crimes leave behind. I simply deeply empathise with how Arthur felt in the build up to that (although I do feel that the sequence of events in the first 30-40 minutes were a little rushed - more development would have been better in my opinion). I desperately wanted to comfort and support Arthur, before he reached that point. It was captivating yet heartbreaking to witness him descend deeper and deeper into a pit of despair and madness that he couldn't crawl out of. Throughout the film, I wished that someone noticed the warning signs earlier and cared enough to do something.
Having been a support worker for people who committed various, serious offences - and raised within a family that has a dark history of abuse, crime and violence - I understand the sequence of events that can potentially lead to these consequences, without excusing or justifying them. I can even see how my own decisions and outcomes could have been dramatically different and I'm very grateful that I was able to choose an alternative way of life. Common themes for many of those I supported - which were also present in the film - were a perpetual cycle of abuse passed from generation to generation, violence being normalised within social circles, poverty, isolation and inadequate intervention.
I like how the film looked at mental health provisions, austerity and how the system fails people. It also addressed the detachment and disconnection between service providers and service users in a relatable way. I felt Arthur's alienation and frustration. It's painfully pertinent to our current circumstances here in the UK.
Unlike other critics whose reviews I have read, I didn't feel Arthur was nothing more than a bitter, entitled white man with a gun (although there was certainly an element of that, deliberately I suspect - the film unravels like a social commentary). I understand their perspective, but this oversimplifies his character tremendously. Perhaps simplification makes people feel more comfortable when confronting such dark and multifaceted matters, and when faced with the flawed, raw humanness of those who hurt others.
A very moving, very bold and very important film.