Despite being based on a comic book, THE DARK KNIGHT has moments of greatness. In the larger sense, a good deal of it’s due to the acting, but there are wonderful moments of writing and musical scoring and let’s not forget the camera work. The movie is so viscerally visual that for someone like me who suffers a fear of heights (and pretty much a fear of anything moving over 5 km an hour, if that has a name), at times it’s torture to endure. The movie is not entirely Heath Ledger’s, though he is its brightest focus, being totally at ease and so clearly relishing his role as the greasy, green-haired Joker in a performance more than a little reminiscent of Brando. One of the things I loved about Ledger was his chameleon talent, how he changed so completely from film to film, also like Brando. How different are the roles of Ennis del Mar and the nerdy College-boy look he sported as Jacob in THE BROTHERS GRIMM from this and any of his other roles. And even if the film wasn’t interesting, you knew Ledger would be. Overall, this film is a bit long, but you don’t mind because it means extending time with Ledger for nearly the last time. This must be what it would have been like to watch James Dean in GIANT a year after his death, though THE DARK KNIGHT is far more enjoyable than GIANT.
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