My friends dragged me to the theater for this one, and i did not like it, to the point where halfway i was about ready to leave.
Now, my problem with it is only one, because otherwise this is a remarkable film; it's very well made, the recreation of 1980s NYC is impressive, Phoenix's acting is .. hmm... "really powerful", but let's get to what i didnt like.
Actually now that i think about it, there may be more than one thing i didnt like.
First, i hate that "i showed you something but it wasn't true" device.
It's ok when we are shown Arthur imagining Murray welcoming him "as a son", but when you advance the film by half hour and the relationship with Sophie becomes imaginary, that's both crude storytelling, and not actually possible for me on-the-fly to understand the implied changes. It also does literally nothing for the plot, so why is it even there?
This works great when in a film, a "big reveal" trope of an antagonist who has been fooling the protagonist - such as Devil's Advocate; it works when it advances the plot, such as Sixth Sense. It doesn't work when my brain has to go back half an hour to undo everything i've been shown previously, and it's even worse when this doesnt really change anything, i mean, how much more insane can he get.
Second, i dont really want to watch a film about mental illness?
I'm not sure who this film targets besides the pretentious; if you want to make a serious film about mental illness, don't fucking set it in the DC universe - the DC Joker is NOT a good example of mental illness, but a caricature, as every good villain should be. Films are not real life, if you overdo it in humanizing the antagonist, then you detract from the hero's quest to defeat him - a villain is simply a symbol of "what the hero must overcome".
Third,
this is a really bad film about mental illness.
If your aim is to portray a man's descent into madness, you need, you MUST depict the erosion of a person's human state of mind. You can take as many liberties you want with a film, but humans tend to be, you know, real. I need to relate to how the initial character is, and how it deteriorates. If i cannot keep up with the absurd swings in character, then the film isn't getting through to me. Arthur skips from absolutely mental to "well, just fine" with an ease that is just not realistic - if you are aiming to make a realistic film. He doesn't have a plateau of emotions, probably because the people in charge of writing have no idea what mental illness actually is. The climax of the film, Arthur's speech at the Murray show, is particularly bad; obviously Phoenix needs to work with the writing he's given, but if this is the film you want, maybe work backwards from the final speech; or, you could avoid these problems if you know what you are talking about, where here the writers obviously don't.
Fourth,
it's a really shit Joker.
I love the Joker (as i guess we all do), he's such a brilliant anti-hero, who weightlessly glides over the problems of common life, pulling a cannon-sized handgun from his trousers, and disappearing in a mist of poisonous vapour as the police around him flee in a blind panic. This instead is the joker that couldn't; the Darth Vader without the force. The senile Lex Luthor.
I dont think this is a story that needed to be told; i get it that the concept was of Arthur being the protagonist, in a real-world film about mental illness, and the Joker being the antagonist, out of a surreal DC action film, and how they meld to become one. We know this is about as constructive as Horror-Comedy films - the two do not work together. I guess this is the masterpiece of the McDonald-eating, Marvel-watching generation, but i woulnd't recommend this film to anyone. It's crude, way too long and redundant, without a protagonist or a real antagonist, a mediocre plot, a horrible framing device, and while i like the efforts that were put in production (although i gotta say, it's kinda unlikely you would see a WV Beetle in NYC in the 80s)i wouldn't want to put anyone through the suffering which is the other 2h of film.
instead of a vote, i would say, what could have made this film better?
cut out all DC crap - drop the Waynes, drop Arkham, cut out the insanity of the mother alltogether (how does a single mental-patient pass child adoption anyway?), get to the climax in 90 minutes, and close with a Joker triumphant - that would have made it a nice, entertaining film.
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