Fridae

Six months ago, Heath Ledger � an extraordinarily talented actor best remembered for playing a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain � died of an accidental drug overdose.

His last on-screen performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight is a fitting reminder of what the world lost � a bright, fearless actor who was unafraid of exploring every dark nook and cranny of the human psyche.

With his tangled hair and creepily painted face, his performance embodies all that is wild, uncontrollable and inscrutable about the Joker. It surpasses even Jack Nicholson's much-praised turn as the Joker in 1989's version of Batman. Not surprisingly, he is now being touted as a shoo-in for the Oscar's Best Supporting Actor category next year.

But Heath isn't the only memorable thing in The Dark Knight. Indeed, every other member of the cast and crew pulls his or her own weight to make this an impressive picture.

The plot revolves around Batman (Christian Bale) as he continues to battle crime in Gotham City. Even though he has found a powerful ally in district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), he still cannot halt the evil machinations of his longtime nemesis, the Joker.

The Joker is such an immoral villain that Batman feels that he too must abandon his own moral code in order to defeat him. Consequently, Batman sinks into an existential quagmire that goes deeper than he's ever been before...

Directed by Christopher Nolan, who helmed 2005's Batman Begins, The Dark Knight can sometimes seem too dark and depressing for its own good. The movie moves from one scene to another with so little humour that, at times, one feels almost reluctant to keep watching. Christopher may have taken the word Dark in the film's title much too seriously.

No doubt the film's direction, production design and cast performances are top-notch and outstanding. One leaves the cinema impressed by the film's technical accomplishments, but also feeling a little drained by the film's gloomy intensity.
One feels like asking, "Hey Christopher, why so serious?"