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REVIEW: ‘The Dark Knight’ might be this year’s best

By Tad Paulson

“The Dark Knight” defies every conventional assumption about a “comic book” movie, wringing freshness into the genre like a garish tie-dyed T-shirt scrubbed immaculate white. It’s an epic masterpiece, a remarkable achievement in visual kineticism, gloomy atmosphere and propulsive narrative—in essence it is the perfectly realized Batman film, the one that true fans of the original series and subsequent graphic novels have been praying for on scraped, bloody knees for years.

The Brothers Nolan (screenwriter Jonathan and director/co-writer Christopher) rebooted the tale of the tormented millionaire Bruce Wayne in 2005’s killer origin tale “Batman Begins,” restoring the respectability and serious aura to a classic story that had descended into trashy parody, hammy acting and burlesque overstylization. If you haven’t seen any of the Nolan’s non-Batman works, go and rent “Memento” and “The Prestige” immediately and prepare to be dazzled.

If “Batman Begins” was about Bruce Wayne’s choice to become Batman and the actions that led him to that decision, “The Dark Knight” is about the troubling ramifications of that choice to everyone Wayne knows and to Gotham itself. Picking up where the first film left off, Batman (Christian Bale) is still taking the fight to an increasingly boxed-in mob, assisted by crusading cop Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and ambitious, fearless new district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Victory seems almost a given until a new player enters the game, a man who refuses to operate according to any rules of conduct or fairness, be they legal or otherwise. This is, of course, the Joker, played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger; as one character puts it, the Joker is “only interested in seeing the world burn,” making him an excessively challenging opponent to corral.

Thematically, the film plays as a densely layered parable about the pitfalls of duality, exploring the vast difficulty in balancing between diametrical opposites: law and justice versus crime and corruption, freedom versus duty, obligations to one’s self versus the greater good, and that old favorite, order versus chaos. Every character in this film – save one pure force of nature (The Joker) – faces a choice between two very different paths, and the Nolan’s script is both meticulous and poetic in depicting the struggles those choices present.

Wisely, these struggles are embodied largely in the character of Dent, the “White Knight” of Gotham and Wayne’s rival for the affections of Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, replacing Katie Holmes). The clash between the doomed Dent and Batman is a classic chapter from the comic series and, later, in Frank Miller’s visionary graphic novel “The Dark Knight” (no relation). Here, the Nolans position the two characters as mirror images working on opposite sides of society. Wayne sees Dent as a hero who can save Gotham without wearing a mask and cape, a crusader who might render his nocturnal forays unnecessary; Dent sees Batman as a necessary catalyst for change, able to go lengths and distances he himself cannot. As allies, they seem a virtually unstoppable pair. But stepping in between the two, and every other alliance in this film, is the Joker.

By now you’ve seen enough trailers, commercials, and photos to know Ledger’s physical appearance (the Alice Cooper-ish make-up, the serrated smile) is startling, ghoulish, and magnetizing. What’s more remarkable is the profound, disturbing level to which Ledger inhabits this character, from the twitchy facial tics and lip-licking to the jaunty, jerky walk and the nerdish voice that is equal parts Hannibal Lector, Liberace, and Steve Urkel. It’s a riveting, electric turn from an actor whose untimely death is a loss to filmgoers worldwide.

The Nolans are too smart to allow the Joker to exist solely as a simple, cackling provider of churlish comic relief. In this telling, the Joker, a self-described “agent of chaos,” is more interested in the impossible ethical and moral dilemmas he forces Batman, Dent, and the people of Gotham into than the terror and violence that sets them in motion or resolves them. He’s like the diabolical host of an alternate version of TV’s “The Moment of Truth,” holding an almost forgotten bomb detonator in his hand as he goads his captive audience into confronting the deepest recesses of their souls, hoping to push them over the precipice and into the abyss he considers his natural-born nirvana. “I’m like a dog chasing cars – I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I actually caught it,” the Joker tells Dent in a critical later scene that epitomizes the crackling-sharp dialogue throughout.

Masterfully directed by Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight” has the tense, gritty feel of a great crime drama of the likes of Michael Mann’s “Heat,” boasting massive setups and daring action sequences that evolve organically from a whisper to a scream. Gotham (a cleverly disguised Chicago) looks and feels like a true urban jungle, the spires of its skyscrapers surrounded by foggy mist, its streets largely and symbolically devoid of sunlight.

Above and beyond the finely calibrated performances of the main actors – Eckhart and Oldman standing out in particular – there are a multitude of secondary characters that flesh out the texture and color of the film. Michael Caine returns as Bruce Wayne’s stalwart, insightful butler Alfred, and Morgan Freeman (rebounding from his zombified spacewalk in “Wanted”) is back as Lucius Fox, who runs Wayne’s empire, designs and upgrades his gadgets, and points out potential FISA violations. Look also for tiny, well-delivered turns from Eric Roberts as a mob boss, a barely recognizable Anthony Michael Hall as Gotham’s version of Bruce Aune, and William Fichtner in a fleeting but fierce stint as a bank manager with little tolerance for a band of would-be robbers.

“The Dark Knight,” which clocks in at just over two-and-a-half hours, has been ridiculously panned by some critics (among them eminent cinephile Regis Philbin) as overlong and over-adrenalized, suggesting that lopping off a half-hour here or there would make it a more palatable experience. A number of retorts to these criticisms come to mind, most of them unmentionable here, but chiefly, there is this: to complain about the intensity, depth and scope of this film is akin to dining at a Le Cordon Bleu-pedigree restaurant and complaining about the absence of tater tots or Ranch dressing on the menu. If you want an easy, fleeting, unchallenging Batman movie that is soft as a baby’s powdered butt, watch 1997’s “Batman and Robin” – you are, without a doubt, its target audience. “The Dark Knight” is a film with no wasted moments, no extraneous scenes, and no excess baggage to be ejected; to argue otherwise is to judge the whole without a modicum of understanding of its parts. This is a picture to be savored and experienced repeatedly by those who are capable and willing to study and appreciate its intricacies. It is, quite possibly, the best film you’ll see in 2008.

A word to parents: Pay close attention to the PG-13 rating; this is no film for younger children. They might enjoy the action sequences, but they’ll fidget at some of the longer, dialogue-heavy sequences, and the Joker and Two-Face are perfect fodder for bed-wetting nightmares.

“The Dark Knight” is playing at Sycamore Mall in Iowa City, Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville and both the Wynnsong 12 and Galaxy 16 theaters in Cedar Rapids.