I'm like a dog chasing cars - I wouldn't know what to do even if I caught one!

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2015)

Hands up if you're a Batman fan. I'm not for a start, and nor have I ever been, but after watching this film recently I had to put a quick few words in simply to praise a high-concept blockbuster which contains one of the most riveting performances in recent film history.
I know one or two people have taken issue with the late Heath Ledger, claiming he had a good script, good director, good producer and so on. It's true, he did, but he still delivers a performance worthy of anything you will have seen lately at your local multiplex, or even not so lately come to that. Trust me, he really is that good.
Cast your mind back to the late 80s when that man from The Shining played the Joker full of intricate make-up and long sideways glances. I'm not knocking Jack Nicholson, he's a great actor, but think for a moment about the psychology of his joker. He was a middle-aged man wearing make-up. Lots of make-up. Yet he wandered about the film sounding rather like the chief executive of a listed company. I mean talk about anti-climactic.
By contrast Ledger radiates a raw energy as the nemesis of The Dark Knight. He is the punk rock upstart in this film, a malign presence who appears at first behind a mask at the opening of the movie and slowly but surely gets under your skin, while taking the entire film with him. There is a menacing scene about halfway through the picture when he appears at the hospital bedside of one of his victims, a man whose face has been half burnt off from an acid fire. Nasty, very nasty. But with an emphatic plea to his unfortunate victim the Joker makes a case for some sort of empathy with the man: 'I am an agent of chaos, I'm not a villain. I just AM. Look at me! I'm like a dog chasing cars - I wouldn't know what to do even if I caught one! And the great thing about chaos . . . It doesn't take sides, it's fair.'
Words alone can hardly do justice to this portrait of malevolent charm, frailty and menace by the late Heath Ledger. I won't even try anymore, except to say just watch this film the first chance you get, if you haven't done already.
Trust me, this actor is worth it. RIP Mr Ledger.