Standing tall
Christian Bale's edgy new Batman looks like Gotham's best yet
By Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News
June 15, 2005
This year's tank-like edition of the Batmobile may lack the swooping elegance of Batman's previous rides, but packs a decidedly harder wallop. The same can be said of Batman Begins, the latest movie in a long-running franchise. Avid and operatic, Batman Begins arrives with fire in its belly.
Thanks to a new director (Christopher Nolan) and a new Batman (Christian Bale), we have a fresh and exciting take on Batman that charts the transformation of disillusioned rich boy Bruce Wayne into a bona fide superhero. Aficionados no doubt will debate the merits of those who have played Batman, but I'm inclined to forget Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.
In my view, Bale makes the most interesting Batman yet. The actor who gave us American Psycho, doesn't seem quite rooted in the "real" world, yet can be alarmingly physical. In Batman Begins, Bale brings fear, danger and simmering rage to the role of Gotham's main protector.
Nolan (Memento and Insomnia) has picked up the Batman torch and allowed it to flicker through one of the darkest stories yet. And although Batman Begins doesn't have a signature villain (a la The Joker), it boasts an amazingly strong cast of supporting actors, some of whom collaborate to spin an intricate web of villainy.
Nolan's is not the first name that springs to mind for a movie with "blockbuster" potential, but he gives an interesting edge to the Batman franchise, dipping into twisted psychology, exploring the tension between vengeance and justice and assaying the role of fear in fighting evil.
Working with screenwriter David S. Goyer (Blade), Nolan explores Batman's origins, opening the movie with Bruce Wayne languishing in a wretched Asian jail. The events that follow have a slightly preposterous ring, but they're kept plausible by some fine actors. Liam Neeson shows up as Henri Ducard, a man who springs Bruce from jail and encourages him to visit a spectacularly isolated Himalayan haunt presided over by Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).
There, Wayne trains in the martial arts and is invited to join the mysterious League of Shadows, an organization that ruthlessly fights evil. In a monastery clinging to the side of a steep hill, the movie establishes itself thematically: Bitter and guilt-ridden over the murder of his parents, Wayne discovers that justice must make room for compassion. He declines the league's invitation and returns to Gotham to fight crime in his own way.
The Batman persona then begins to take shape, and the movie expands its cast of characters, introducing Morgan Freeman (as an inventor at Wayne Enterprises), Rutger Hauer (as the unscrupulous head of Wayne Enterprises) and Michael Caine (as Alfred, the devoted family butler).
Caine brings a bit of winking humor to the proceedings, and Freeman seems particularly relaxed. And in case, these names aren't enough to generate interest, more soon arrive: Tom Wilkinson has a marvelously sleazy turn as mob boss Carmine Falcone and Gary Oldman portrays Jim Gordon, one of Gotham's few honest cops.
Gotham looks like a slightly degraded version of New York, a city mired in corruption and scarred by the effects of lingering economic depression, but it's the city Bruce calls home, and once he's there, he meets a childhood friend (Katie Holmes), who by this time has become an incorruptible district attorney.
The movie is so convincingly dark that the few attempts at winking humor almost seem out of place. Bale definitely comes across as a man on a mission, and the movie's set pieces - building of the Batcave, for example - have a driving energy to match.
Batman Begins does have its liabilities. Well-suited to the exploration of interior life, Nolan proves less fluent in the language of action, and, at times, I wished that he had a more stylized vision for Batman. He doesn't relish set design in the same way as Batman's first director, Tim Burton.
Still, Batman broods and roils effectively. Say goodbye to "pow" and "zowie." Say hello to a level of raw excitement that at times makes Batman look like a predator for justice.
As for the movie's central question - Is Gotham beyond saving? - the jury remains out, but there probably will be more movies that afford an opportunity to answer the question. I look forward to them.
Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com
Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News.
All Rights Reserved.
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