A FULL Opinion on The Dark Knight

Casey and I turned in our rain checks and finished the movie tonight. We arrived at 7:15, and got tickets for a showing at 7:15, and slyly snuck into the showing that started at 6:15, which was just a few moments before we got cut off on Sunday.

First and foremost, let me say that The Dark Knight IS a very good movie. For whatever reason, I have a tendency to fall asleep during action movies. I intensely involved in this movie throughout, and enjoyed almost every moment.

And now, this: If Heath Ledger were not dead, neither this movie nor Ledger's performance would garner the sort of attention and acclaim it is receiving. While Ledger's performance certainly does not deserve any sort of negative comment...whatever special thing everyone else has seen in his performance never registered for me. I also feel, that the movie did not require the type of approach he insisted on for that particular role. His performance, emotionally effective, was, like his Ennis Delmar from Brokeback Mountain, a physically focused work: it started with the voice, continued with the shoulders and worked his way through his body. Psychologically, I saw little more than a focused actor, balancing a nervousness over doing well, with a confidence that he was, in fact, doing well.

Heath's performance would not stand out, however, if not for his death. That isn't so much a statement on Ledger's Joker, as it is a compliment to the other performances. I found Bale, Oldman, and particularly Eckhart's performances just as, if not much more effective. (Definitely more so in Eckhart's case...I wish his performance would be recognized as the break-out.) Heath Ledger would merely be a player in a superbly cast, and excellently written film if not for his passing.

Speaking of the writing...even more than his untimely death, the writing of the film, the joker character in particular, is what really is affording Ledger so much credit. This script's treatment of Joker is as rich a characterization as I've seen on film. What makes watching him in this film so enrapturing is his wit and dialogue. Ledger's often cartoonish portrayal would have fallen short if the character were the least bit shallow.

I really did find the movie really excellent overall...and I won't try to pretend I'm not jaded by the attention that Heath and really the movie itself has been getting. There is, I'm sure, a part of me who is being extra stingy with my criticisms of him, but the sentiments above are my true opinions of the movie. Go see it if you haven't yet...and if you haven't yet, who are you?