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Why Joker: Folie à Deux failed

07/10/2024 - Adam Cole

SPOILERS AHEAD

Exposition: a clear and full explanation of an idea or theory

Exposition is where you explicitly expose information in a scene through dialogue rather than describing it visually or through subtle verbal queues. This can leave a very flat and shallow feeling to a story, it lacks realism.

In other words, don't say it, show it.

The Musical Jester

Joker is a musical. Littered throughout the dark scenes that describe a growing love between Arthur and 'Harleen' (or Lee), there are musical numbers either imagined by Arthur, or taking place in the real world due to Lee's obsession with singing.

This is used to tell the audience, through the use of lyrics, the feelings passing through either of the characters at any moment. I quite enjoyed the idea, I can see what they were going for, and it's something different, which deserves appreciation in today's cookie cutter film industry.

The problem that arose from this is the explicit nature of the story telling. Rather than building tension through traditional filmmaking, and letting the audience understand the characters through the emotion that they develop for the story and the characters, they are handed the intention of the movie on a silver platter.

How can you make a movie thought provoking, when you don't let the audience think for themselves?

You can't

Moving on, much of the movie takes place in a courtroom. It is almost a law drama, parts of it reminded me of the recent Bryan Cranston series 'Your Honor'. The issue here was that they seemed to make no attempt to build any tension, which is almost the point of courtroom dramas.

They settled on the idea of ending every scene with a musical sequence, and this meant that when the courtroom scenes built up any level of tension, it ended with a tornado of average stage singing with a stereotypical dramatic orchestral backing.

In summary, Joker: Folie à Deux uses exposition to explain the entire love story between Arthur and Lee, through courtroom scenes separated by musical sequences, leaving no emotional build up in the audience. This leaves us with the question, how can you expect a feeling of love between the characters, if you don't let any emotion manifest within the viewer?

Falling Flat

So, we have established that the movie provides no emotional complexity. This is a crime in itself, but then they decide to go for a triple murder.

The second to last scene of the movie shows Lee in her Harley Quinn outfit sitting on the railings of the staircase in the famous 'Staircase scene' from the Joaquin's debut as Joker. This shows her readiness to jump straight into her love fantasy with 'The Joker'. Moment's later, Arthur (after escaping prison) approaches her and shows his interest, expressing his desire spend his time as an escaped convict with her. Harleen then proceeds to shut him down. 'The fantasy is over' she exclaims, before walking off into the distance. You mean to tell me that you spent hours trying to sell this romance to us with lack-luster storytelling, just to nullify any reminance of emotional connection that the viewer would have felt between the characters? Why?

Todd Phillips then moves us into the final scene of the movie. Arthur is being escorted through the prison after being brought back into custody. He walks passed one of his fellow crazy inmates that seems to have an obsession over him. During this interaction, the inmate tells a 'joke' to Arthur, ending with the punchline 'you get what you fucking deserve.' followed by Arthur being stabbed multiple times in the stomach. Arthur falls to the ground, and the camera zooms in on his face as he slowly dies, with the song That's Life escorting the viewer to the movie's credits.

What is the purpose of this? Are they trying to be edgy by signalling to us that 'characters in hero and villain movies can be killed off'? Are they admitting to us that 'Joker' really didn't need a sequel? Did they run out of budget for the rest of the Joker series by hiring Lady Gaga? To me, this ending felt extremely unnecessary, and for it to be the cherry on top of 2 hours of essentially nothingness makes the movie feel insulting. It's almost like they purposefully wasted our time, and made a deliberate attempt to ruin the legacy of (in my humble opinion) one of the greatest comic book character adaptations of all time in Joker.

The only redeeming quality of this movie is the exceptional acting of Joaquin Pheonix. I hope this movie doesn't leave a stain on his career.

© 2024 Adam Cole