Wow, Wow, Wow!!

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2008)

When Heath Ledger was first cast as the Joker, I, like many others, had raised my eyebrows to say the least, as he was on very few of the multitudes of lists of actors that people were saying who should play the Joker.
I'm happy to say that I didn't bash the choice, like many others did. Having been a huge fan of Batman Begins, I had faith in Christopher Nolan and the vision he had for The Dark Knight. I was quite curious to see how Ledger would do. I wasn't surprised he did well. I was surprised at how he hit a grand slam with this performance. Wow! I did not see Ledger at all in this movie - I only saw the Joker. I doubt I will be able to ever watch the 89 Batman with Jack Nicholson again. Ledger's Joker puts all the rest of the Joker incarnations to shame. He hits all the right notes of the character - his insanity, his twisted view on life, his doing things for no real reason, but just to do it. His relationship with Batman is extremely true to the comics thanks to the brilliance of the screenplay and Ledger. The interrogation scene in the police station and the dialogue between Batman and the Joker near the end are highlights. This was a very well defined rendition of the Joker that will be extremely difficult to top. Ledger's performance alone will make this movie extremely rewatchable.
Then there's Aaron Eckhart and the character of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, a character that had yet to be fully realized in a Batman movie (Batman Forever did not do the character justice, no pun intended, at all). Finally, we get a very well realized character arc, a tragic tale of the white knight, Harvey Dent, an honorable man destined for a tragic downfall. Thank you Christopher Nolan for finally delivering a worthy tale of the tragic character Dent. Aaron Eckhart was fabulous. I always liked him as an actor, but I think this has been his finest performance yet. He makes Dent a very likable person who you hate seeing go through what he goes through over the course of the movie. His transition into Two-Face is very well done, very believable. They establish many of the traits that would go into that personality very well at the beginning. The way they incorporate the coin was well executed.
Christian Bale is good once again as Batman. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are their usually reliable selves, bringing nice comic relief at points. A welcome cameo by Cillian Murphy adds a nice touch and I thought Eric Roberts actually did quite well as mob boss Sal Maroni, who deals with the Joker, but not completely happy about having to do so.
This was a two and a half hour movie, but it moves fast. The interweaving of the story lines, particularly with the Joker and Dent was impressively done. The strength of the movie is the strong story and memorable characters. I'd highly recommend it. One of the movies that actually lives up to the hype.