Joker: Folie à Deux Review – Maddening to Sit Through!

Joker has been part of DC comics since the 1940s and made his film debut in 1966 with Cesar Romero original performance. Since then, Jack Nicholson portrayed him in 1989 with Mark Hamill giving his voice to Batman: The Original Series in the 1990s. However, what brought Joker into the mainstream for comic book fans and film fans alike was Heath Ledger’s unforgettable performance in the Dark Knight trilogy films that transcended generations of viewers and jump started a renaissance of people’s love for the iconic villain.

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Flash forward to 2019 (yes, we are skipping past Suicide Squad (2016) Todd Phillips released Joker, what seemed to be a standalone film centering on the character played by Joaquin Phoenix. Grossing over a billion dollars it was a massive success, enough to make a sequel five years later. As someone who was not blown away by Joker [2019], Joker: Folie à Deux and its fresh take on Arthur Fleck’s continuing story as a musical sounded like a 180 worth examining.

With the addition of Lady Gaga, between her vocal talent and Harley’s introduction to the story, it seems like Todd Phillips had another budget success on his hands. Time will tell the box office success of the film but Joker: Folie à Deux is a drawn out slog that fails to capture any reason for the story’s continuation.

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) resides at Arkham State Hospital after killing five people the last time we saw him (six if you count his mother that he was not convicted of killing). After being a model inmate, Arthur is allowed to join the music group at the hospital, where he meets Harley Quinzel (Lady Gaga). With his upcoming trial ahead of him and finding a new love he never expected, Arthur basks in his fantasy world as Joker, with musical numbers and vocal moments only his mind could conjure up.

Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t have to go full on West Side Story or Sound of Music to categorize itself as part musical but Phillips inability to create any type of fluidity between the musical numbers and the story made it for a roughly produced and edited film. Given that the entire film focuses on the possibility that Arthur is living in a fantasy world as Joker, in order to come to terms with his traumatic past abuse.

It makes sense to have the film play out as a musical with fantastical elements mirroring this split personality (or so his lawyer says). Phillips could have succeeded a lot more in this concept if the film committed to its musical identity, creating an unidentifiable parallel between the real world and the musical numbers. Every time Arthur began to sing, the scenes were cut exactly the same way every time, cutting right back to the real world after the ending note. This identified when Arthur’s daydreams were beginning and ending, leaving little to connect to the story at large.

For a film that attempts to move in a new direction from its predecessor, Joker: Folie à Deux spends almost all of its runtime harping on every event that occurred in the first film.. It is evident that Arthur is stuck in Arkham but his physical drawbacks should not have had an impact on the progression of the story. The musical numbers were utilized to add to the story in spite of Arthur’s limitations but it added nothing memorable and was directed with little to no artistic “pizazz” of the musical genre. Nothing could be felt between Arthur and Harley and left every scene with them together feeling as bland as the Arkham cement walls surrounding them.

Leaving Joker in 2019, it felt like in spite of the backstory the audience was given on Arthur and his past, nothing worthwhile was added to his origin story. He was abused as a child and failed by society, thus resulting in his psychiatric break and violent acts behind his mask. It was a very standard villain tale where Phillips’ work on the film made it hazy whether we were intended to blame the world for Joker or blame the man for lashing out.

Although Joker: Folie à Deux takes what seemed like Phillips original approach of maintaining the idea that some people are just evil, the film even through his fantasies continued on with his lifeless portrayal of the character. Folie à Deux is maddening to sit through, almost like being locked up in Arkham ourselves.

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Rating – 4.5/5

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