The follow-up rides on an inert, stretched-out plotline
New Delhi:
Joker: Folly a Deux This is what you end up with when a Hollywood studio tries to spin a sequel out of a strong and self-contained film that has all the qualities of a stand-alone work – a disaster that can’t seem to get out of its way. The follow-up lacks the essence and potential of 2019 the jokerwhich was a Venice Golden Lion winner and a major worldwide box-office success despite mixed reviews. The expansion of Joker’s origins is driven entirely by the hope of making more money.
It rides on an inert, stretched-out plotline that, aside from Arthur Flack’s sudden discovery of love in unlikely quarters and Lady Gaga’s sultry voice, which occasionally elevates the film from the dreary quagmire it sinks into, has little to offer. Through novelty and genuine magnetism.
Joker: Folly a Deux Technically flawless, visually arresting (returning cinematographer Lawrence Sher is at the top of his game) and musically rich (thanks to composer Hildur Guanadottir, who won an Oscar, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Joker). Still, director Todd Phillips’ iteration feels rather ill-advised.
Joker: Folly à Deux is more of an optimistic shot in the dark than a well-thought-out exercise in directing further investigation into Arthur’s troubled mind and the consequences of his criminal actions.
The Joker was driven by a phenomenal Joaquin Phoenix performance. He is just as good in the sequel. Getting into the skin of a man constantly teetering on the edge of madness and easing into a guttural cackle, he gives great dynamics to an Arthur Fleck who is broken in body and soul and struggling with a self that has split in two. Conflicting personalities.
Lady Gaga has much less to work with, but with her singing and screen presence she makes up for what the character lacks in terms of pure dramatic power. In addition to this, the chemistry between her and Phoenix, while not effective, has an interesting, endearing quality.
Joker: Folly à Deux opens with an animated film about the Joker and his shadow before delivering a gray transition to the audience, barring the interior of Arkham State Hospital where Arthur Flake is lodged ahead of legal action that will bring law enforcement into action. Believe me he deserves it.
By Scott Silver and Todd Phillips, Joker: Folly a Deux Filled with lively cover versions of an array of famous songs, which pop up at regular intervals and serve as a medium of communication between Arthur, who is now a patient in a high-security wing of Arkham Prison-Hospital.
He is awaiting trial for the murders of five people, including his idol, late-night talk show host Murray Franklin, whom he shot in the head on live television in an earlier film. Large parts of the thin story rest elaborately on what happened in the antecedents.
Joker: Folly a Deux Moves between Arkham, with its prisoners and guards, and the courtroom where Arthur faces trial, represented by lawyer Marian Stewart (Catherine Keener), with whom he often clashes.
Newly-elected District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lotte) is determined to send Arthur to the electric chair. He raises the question of what Arthur was doing two years ago in a decaying, recession-stricken Gotham City, where the rich and powerful called the shots with little accountability to the people their greed affected.
Arkham’s guards, led by Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson), give Arthur a hard time. But the plucky guy takes the harassment on the chin. Due to heavy, regular medication, he seems to have regained some normality.
His good behavior gives Arthur some respite and he is allowed to attend music therapy sessions in another wing that accommodates patients of a less problematic nature. There he meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who becomes obsessed with the Joker and instantly gravitates. towards him
Arthur bonds with Lee over music and their shared emotional problems. Love blossoms between two souls searching for peace. Hope and Fulfillment hint that even Arthur’s trial, centered on the defense’s argument that the murders were committed by the Joker, not Arthur Flake, is about to begin.
With a glimmer of love and acceptance, Arthur goes off his medication, slowly returning to the Joker in him. The judge often peeked at him to reprimand him. At one point, Arthur is warned that this is not a comedy club and that “you are not on stage”.
That’s where Arthur hangs – between the real world that doesn’t care one bit for his choices and a fantasy universe that he weaves with Lee. Reality rankles. Arthur and Lee escape to an imaginary domain filled with musical routines that give Lady Gaga, who otherwise plays second fiddle to Phoenix, a place to fully display her wares.
These set pieces, however tagged-on they may be, give Joker: Foley a rare moment of beauty and power. Arthur’s fragile state of mind is underscored by performances that shake his mind, be they in clubs, variety shows or in the courtroom, which becomes a stage for an angry musical explosion.
These are interesting touches, suggesting Arthur’s desperate flight from past wounds and pain into a retreat that holds the promise of harmony and redemption.
But that said, not only is the narrative extremely thin, the character development is almost non-existent. The musical numbers draw our attention away from the absence of true inspiration in the story and the overall treatment. As long as I have love I can do it, goes one of the songs. As for the film, for all the love and music it peddles, it doesn’t quite make it.
Such a large number of musical numbers is unusual for a film as dark as Joker: Folie à Deux. But despite the singing and dancing, Phillips clearly doesn’t want audiences to see the film as a musical. It takes quite a bit of shine off an exercise that does a good job of playing up style-substance conflicts.
The light in both Arthur and Lee – the latter of whom builds “a mountain out of a small hill” and “a heaven out of a small hell” and sings, once the two are free – dispels the darkness that engulfs them, but can it? Be permanent as they want it to be?
Confusion never goes away. The Joker’s Part: Folly à Deux is highly incoherent. If it’s meant to convey the underlying conflicts at work of two damaged minds, it doesn’t quite work.
