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  Film: Nell Schofield previews The Dark Knight and Married Life July 20, 2008 Reporter :Nell Schofield  Watch our review of The Dark KnightWatch our review of Married Life Film: Nell Schofield previews The Dark Knight and Married Life Everyone’s talking about a posthumous Oscar nomination for Heath Ledger’s supporting role as The Joker in the new Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight’. It’s just hit the big screens, including the giant Imax ones, and Nell Schofield went along to see what all the fuss is about. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a bat. And one with a very odd voice at that. But boy, can this bat battle evil. Christian Bale is back as the conflicted Caped Crusader and his alter ego Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the much darker sequel to his 2005 film Batman Begins. But all eyes are on the dazzling performance by the late Heath Ledger as his psychotic nemesis The Joker. Ledger has picked up where Jack Nicholson left off in Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman, and has created a diabolical Joker caked in manky stage make-up to hide the hideous scars left by his father when he carved a big gruesome smile on his face as a kid – at least, that’s his explanation. But whatever it was, this guy’s become a truly kinky freak appearing at one point in a red wig and nurses uniform. Nolan has surrounded his villain and superhero with a cast that includes a wonderfully dry Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred and Aaron Eckhart as the White Knight Harvey Dent, a character destined to become the hideously deformed Two-Face. And then there’s the irresistible Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Harvey’s girlfriend and Bruce’s secret heart throb. Maggie Gyllenhaal somewhat under utilised in the token female role of Rachel Dawes. But, hey, this is essentially a movie made for boys who like their superheros impervious to too much romanticism. There’s plenty of explosive action for the target audience with six big sequences shot on Imax cameras cranking up the overall impact. I’m not sure if Chicago has recovered from this shoot yet but it sure looks fantastic up there eight stories high. And the demented face of Heath Ledger’s Joker is truly something to behold, especially when he drools in Batman’s ear that famous line from Jerry MacGuire; “You complete me.” But for a more domestic cinematic experience this week, you might like to hold out for Married Life. Our narrator is Richard, a serial bachelor played by Pierce Brosnan who we saw straining his vocal chords last week in Mamma Mia! Chris Cooper is his best friend Harry who has fallen hard for the considerably younger platinum blonde Kay – a radiant Rachel McAdams. But he already has a wife and in order not to hurt her feelings, he decides to kill her. Patricia Clarkson revealing some of the perks of playing the part of Pat. And that younger man she gets to romp around with is played by our own David Wenham. This clever, old fashioned melodrama was directed by Ira Sachs who also wrote the screenplay based on a book by John Bingham published back in 1952 called ‘Five Roundabouts To Heaven’. It asks the rather troubling question; “Do we ever really know what goes on in the mind of the person we sleep next to?” Married Life may look blissful from the outside but it could be a maelstrom of deception within. In this case, there’s a satisfying symmetry to all that emotional turmoil that will leave you marvelling at how silly men, and women, can be. |
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