What can I say? Brilliant!

Phew…two powerful films in two days! The last time I saw two really effective films back to back was when I devoured Black Friday and Parzania one after the other. This time, two films by the same director but incredibly different in their treatment, scope, narrative, and of course landscape. After the searing complexity of The Prestige, the fast-paced, yet evocative chronicle of the caped crusader in The Dark Knight, one would feel is a let down. Far from it though. This Batman caper is marauding, violent, absolutely unpredictable and of course…dark! And to top it all, the film really, actually moves…as quick as the Batmobile perhaps.
At the same time, it is an absolutely fantastic gangster flick with all the required ingredients. A Mongoloid financier, a motley group of gangster in Gotham city which includes the proverbial Italian and a smattering of street-smart Hispanics…all the trappings of a great gangsta movie. The difference is just…the Joker. That Heath Ledger is brilliant as the invective-spewing, painted-over, psychopathic evil murderer is an understatement. He completely blows you away with his turn as the blood-curdling junkie gangster innovatively named the Joker. And the Joker has a story to tell to all his victims…about why he is, well, called the Joker. His act is grotesque and mesmerizing, both at the same time. It is a pity that the world lost this absolutely and completely astonishing actor, hard to tell if the posthumous Academy Award can compensate the loss.
The setting of the film is stark and the preamble ominous. And the excruciatingly good looking Christian Bale plays the caped crusader to perfection to the extent of nonchalance. He transforms into the dark knight to rid Gotham city of the vile scum. The reviled underbelly undoubtedly led by the petulant Joker. ‘You complete me…’, he says to Batman. Good completes evil…evil completes good…..white and black……….or perhaps grey….the contradictions are marvelous to fathom. As the dark knight rides, quite literally into the dark night after the bad guy, importantly, The Joker have been ground to dust, the landscape (oops! Here I go again) of the film stays with you for a long long time.
Primary deduction: Christopher Nolan is a genius.