THE DARK KNIGHT

Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, Nestor Carbonell
Year: 2008
Rating: PG-13

My goal for 2008 was to see 50 films. Shouldn't have been too difficult to do, but with taking a few months off from seeing films I'm glad to have finally made it. I knew I wanted the 50th to be a "biggie," so made it a film that I had heard over and over was perhaps the best film of the year ... certainly a film that contained maybe the best performance of the year. Also, it happened to be a film that I was very sorry to have missed in theaters, anyway.

The Dark Knight is nothing less than a brilliant piece of filmmaking that finally has the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman realizing his full potential on the big screen. Christian Bale - right down to the gravelly, low-key voice (which is just as vulnerable when he's Bruce Wayne as it is menacing when he's Batman) doesn't just give a performance here ... he creates a full, three-dimensional anti-hero and man with strength, charisma, and definitely his share of flaws. In other words, you won't see Bale - you'll see Batman/Bruce Wayne; such is the chameleon-like wonderment of Christian Bale.

It would be the performance of the film, for sure - if it wasn't only slightly overshadowed by the Oscar-worthy, quite frightening, frenetic and almost otherworldly performance of the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. With all deference put aside to Jack Nicholson's brilliance from 1989's Batman, here Ledger not only matches Bale's ability to lose himself and become the character - he even surpasses it. It's a mind-blowing, creepy and absolutely flawless performance, and when the film industry lost Ledger back in January of this year, it (and the world) lost one of its greatest craftsmen ever.

Things are going fairly well in Gotham. Well, or so it would seem. The new district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) has worked with Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and local police to bust up and arrest many of the various crime rings that have been terrorizing Gotham City for a long, long time. Because Lt. Gordon trusts Batman, Dent has accepted his help as well ... and things seem to be working, until a new master criminal - one who seems without conscience and without a method to his madness, calling himself The Joker - starts his own reign of terror over the city, first off by eliminate and bullying crime bosses in Gotham City until they agree to pay him half of all their ill-gotten gain ... in exchange for having The Joker murder Batman to finally get him out of their way. Add to this that Harvey Dent's new girlfriend is none other than Bruce Wayne's ex (the one woman he still pines for), Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, aboard for the sequel after Katie Holmes turned the role down) - and the complications in Bruce Wayne's personal life start to take a toll, as well.

The bulk of the film is built around The Joker's various methods of getting to Batman (as well as killing people and/or destroying Gotham City), even as Batman tries to catch him. The script is amazingly intelligent and well-written, far beyond what you'd expect for a "superhero film". Not one character in The Dark Knight ever comes off as cartoon or caricature; on the contrary, you buy into everything and everyone while watching the film, and the 2-1/2 hours pass very quickly. Ledger, as The Joker, has no rhyme, reason or plan to any of the things he does, because his entire M.O. is simply to create anarchy and kill - in many ways making him the ultimate villain, becuase you never know what he's going to do, nor how to stop him. And with Ledger behind the make-up and that insane laughter and facial ticks, yes even The Joker comes off as very scary and very real in this dark, dark world that he has - in part - created.

But that's not to say that Bale and Ledger are alone. Again, not a single false note is struck by any of the cast - and in fact, Aaron Eckhart really deserves his own place on the Batman mantel by creating a real flesh-and-blood human being in the character of Harvey Dent (for those not familiar with Dent's story and what happens, I won't spoil it here). He holds his own with both Bale and Ledger, and the tragedy that befalls him, as Gotham City's "White Knight" who's come to save the city, will both break your heart and fill it with fear.

No matter what incarnation of Batman you've seen before - from comic to television camp to the Burton legacy that turned into the Schumacher schlock - good God, here is the real deal, at last; fresh, innovative, intelligent, and alive with an energy that leaps off the screen. While maybe not the ultimate superhero film - the caped crusader's story isn't for everyone, after all (and this one's, by the way, definitely too intense for younger children) - this certainly is the ultimate Batman film. An amazing feat ... and if Ledger's name is not on the Oscar ballot this spring, it would be an injustice that even Batman himself couldn't right. ***** - Reel Must-See