Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga's 'Joker: Folie a Deux', is less than likely to get anywhere close to that either in narrative craft or audience satisfaction
A still from Joker 2
Film : Joker: Folie a Deux
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, Leigh Gill, Ken Leung, Jacob Lofland, Bill Smitrovich, Sharon Washington
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: * * 1/2
Runtime: 138 min
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Todd Phillips supervillain origin story ‘Joker’ with anarchic aspirations spurred by class and wealth divisions, may have scored a bonanza at the Box Office but the sequel to it, Joker: Folie à Deux, is less than likely to get anywhere close to that either in narrative craft or audience satisfaction. This one has morally corrupted, deranged, institutionalised Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) falling in love and singing the tunes of romance with Lady Gaga in tow but the moral ambiguity that was the highlight of the origin story, gives way to a softer arch.
Here the bleak nihilism doesn’t get radicalised the way we were expecting it to, instead it gets clouded by fantasy romantic duets and courtship that comes across as psychotic. The divisive character is confined to prison or courtroom for most of the runtime and musical numbers varying from jazz, pop and other forms keep butting in. It’s mainly Arthur’s fervid dissociated imagination at play and the viewer is unlikely to be amused. This sequel reduces the archvillain to a bad joke and there’s nothing new to tell either. We already knew from Phillips’ origin story that Arthur was a product of childhood trauma leading to mental illness.
Lady Gaga as Lee, aka Harley Quinn, is also a patient at Arkham State Hospital, where Arthur is a maximum-security prisoner, awaiting trial for murdering five people. After brief encounters at music therapy group sessions, they form a deeper connection. She portrays herself as his superfan, but is she really one?
Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), Arthur’s former love interest/ neighbor makes a brief appearance here as a witness for the prosecution team led by young assistant district attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey). Arthur’s social worker (Sharon Washington) and Gary (Leigh Gill), are the other witnesses.
As part of Phillips’ broader attempt to showcase aggrieved masculinity in a compassionate light, there’s Arthur’s defense lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), who puts forward the defence that Arthur suffers from trauma-induced fragmentation, and that his crimes were the result of a separate person inside him, taking charge. She is trying hard to save him from the death penalty.
Arthur’s case is a long way off from trial and we see him getting more and more emaciated as time passes. Phoenix’s jutting bones and wasting torso are not an easy watch. Arthur singing “When You’re Smiling” on his way to court, “For Once in My Life” a talk-song, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “The Joker,” “If You Go Away” lends brief moments of joy to this rather forbidding experience. Phoenix lives-up to his fragmented ‘Joker’ persona. It’s a performance that is certain to win him accolades.
Gaga has a compelling screen presence that grabs at you. When she is around at the therapy sessions its not her singing voice we hear. It’s just a raw, rough sound. It’s only in the fantasy portion that we hear her full-throated vocals and that is something else altogether. Arthur and Lee sing a duet “You Don’t Know What It’s Like,” there’s a nightclub sequence with Lee singing at the piano and Arthur wild tapping to “Gonna Build a Mountain” and a few more beautifully set musical sequences. Their musical numbers, both duets and solos, are the only relief we get in this rather dark, demented characterscape that plays out like an epilogue with no real story to convey.
With the 138 min runtime dragging it down, the thin, unyielding narrative fails to lift up even with Production designer Mark Friedberg’s stunning sets, Arianne Phillips’ outrageous costumes, Lawrence Sher’s camerawork & Hildur Gudnadóttir’s score. Ultimately Folie a Deux fails to rouse up enough excitement while in play.
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