‘You got a joke for us today Arthur?’. It’s a question that rings around constantly in Joker sequel Folie a Deux, and the answer mostly is ‘no, he doesn’t’. The Joker of Folie a Deux is the least Joker-y Joker to ever hit the big screen, Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck light on laughs, light on plans, and even (outside of his fantasies) light on violence. It’s a take that is sure to divide audiences down the middle, Phoenix, Todd Phillips, and Scott Silver deliberately avoiding fan-friendly catharsis throughout this semi-successful jukebox musical sequel that may as well have avoided the DC branding altogether.
We catch up with Arthur in Arkham Asylum a couple of years after his murder spree that ended with him shooting a talk show host in the head on live TV. His trial is approaching – he’s aiming to avoid the death penalty through an insanity plea in court – but he seems a lot more stable than he did back in Joker, dosed up on meds in the asylum and generally cooperative. This all changes when he meets Lee (Lady Gaga), this world’s much more grounded version of Harley Quinn, here a fellow inmate instead of a deranged psychiatrist whose madness expresses itself in pyromania rather than backflipping around with a big hammer.
Lee is already obsessed with Arthur, and the feeling is soon mutual, reawakening some of his ‘burn it all down’ Joker madness at the worst possible time, his sanity slipping again as his day in court arrives. With Phillips hustling us between Arkham, the courthouse, and the interior world of Arthur’s frazzled mind, the evocative New York exteriors from the original are missed, but that’s not to say that Folie a Deux is not a good-looking film. Returning DOP Lawrence Sher brings some gorgeous visuals and, not to damn with faint praise, it’s so refreshing to see an ostensible big tentpole comic book movie like this actually take some care with what it’s doing with its camerawork and lighting – next to the flat ugliness of, say, Deadpool and Wolverine, Folie a Deux might as well be a Kurosawa’s Ran.
Also coming back is Hildur Gudnadottir on music duties, and her score is, again, excellent, more moving and moody than the film around it perhaps deserves, though she gets less time in the spotlight here thanks to the perhaps mad decision to turn this billion dollar superhero property into a musical. Even with Gaga on singing duties, it’s not a choice that ever fully works, the song-and-dance numbers mostly feeling half-hearted, as if the film is as keen to escape the musical label as it clearly is to escape the ‘comic book’ one. There are a couple of highlights, mostly the stuff taking place inside Arthur’s imagination, but the lack of real oomph is a shame, especially as it also leaves Folie a Deux pretty lacking in terms of set-piece moments (how this ended up costing quadruple the budget of the original is honestly baffling).
While the original netted a bunch of awards and nominations, I can’t see it happening again here. Phoenix is re-treading old territory with his performance, while Gaga is actually a little bland as Lee, (both are handily out-acted by Brendan Gleeson as a cruel Arkham guard) and the whole cast struggles with the odd balance between the script’s shots at seriousness and the sheer number of times they all have to earnestly intone the word ‘Joker’. In many ways, Folie a Deux is a more interesting prospect than its predecessor, carving out a new space that isn’t just a rehash of King of Comedy and getting even further from the source material (though a sure to be controversial ending leaves some room for more stories in this universe).
Yet, 2019 Joker had a clearer aim – to make you squirm – and achieved it with a more singular focus. Any sequel this ambitiously scattershot, taking studio money and doing something weird and distinct with it, certainly has my admiration – I just wish Folie a Deux had enough in the tank to, you know, actually *achieve* its ambitions.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 