Late Ledger lived his role

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2008)

I went into the theater expecting a CGI-filled, rubber suit rendition of my favorite dark knight. I sat down, waited for the movie to start and that's all I remembered of my reality in my seat. Immediately after the movie started, I was transported to Gotham City, with all the darkness, crime and pain of many other cities. For a little while, I felt that Gotham actually existed, right up there with the seedy underbellies of NYC and LA. This is honestly and truly the best Batman film released to date, both with the casting and directing. Christian Bale was an excellent Bat, complete with his mental anguish and personal demons. I loved Michael Caine's Pennyworth. The part was made for him in mind, obviously. That is one actor that can make a butler seem more regal the the King himself! Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel was much more believable and multidimensional than Katie Holmes's stab at the part in the previous Bat film. Morgan Freeman's role may have been a little smaller as Lucius, but no less fantastic. But the one role that truly stood out was Heath Ledger's Joker. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Jack Nicholson fan, but Ledger not only did a sublime job as the Joker, but he LIVED the part. He absorbed it, and it became a part of his being. For Heath Ledger to leave us so abruptly, he left us a gift that would have outlived him anyway; his acting was a candle that flickered out too quickly. To the Nolans: I will never look at your directing the same way again!