Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers
Sitting through the newest movie in the Joker franchise, Joker: Folie à Deux is painful; maybe because it is often interspersed with hallucinatory scenes that unless you’re a serial anarchist or a close second, can be quite confusing to decipher, as reality is liberally challenged by imagination.
Arthur Fleck, expertly played by Joaquin Phoenix reeled us into his world, flaws and all, exposing us to the reality of a troubled mind tethered by love; a love born of lies and obsession personified in everyone’s favourite queen of chaos, Harley Quinn.
Lady Gaga embodies Harley Quinn so flawlessly in this movie that it didn’t take long to forget that anyone else ever played it before now. The whole film tells one story or at least tries to; the story of the inner workings of the mind of a nihilist shared by a love interest; which surprisingly is a medical condition. This explains the movie title, Joker: Folie à Deux which loosely translates as ‘madness shared by two.’
Although Joker: Folie à Deux falls short of its box office expectations, if you are a true fan of the franchise, you should really see it. To be fair, the only spark the movie conjures is the one that Harley Quinn starts in Arkham State Hospital because as you have already guessed, it’s a slow burn.
A little warning, there’s a lot of singing throughout the movie between Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, and it reeks of love. It starts subtly at first and soon spirals into a full-scale musical that will either irritate you or win your heart, depending on what side of the divide you are on.
