Joker - Finally!

Finally after thinking about it but doing nothing for over three months, I downloaded and watched Joker (2019) last weekend. This came after a series I watched recently, ‘Mindhunter’ but we’ll talk about that at a later time I think. So, the first thing right off the bat that I noticed was the structure of the whole movie was different. This was not a movie about the ‘joker’ doing something ‘bad’ and justifying it by fighting against the society like several movie villains are depicted. This was about sympathising with the joker, delving into the secrets of his past, going on a journey with him and exploring what happens inside his mind, the way he reacts and the incidents that trigger a massive change in a man both emotionally and psychologically.

Arthur Fleck has always been the butt of jokes and has been bullied a lot of times, even by teenagers. He suffers from a very low self-esteem and never stands up for himself. After one such incident, a colleague of his gives him a gun to defend himself when necessary. As the times are gloomy and there is a great economic depression, people find it hard to get jobs and survive. He is the sole bread winner of his family which consists of just him and his mother Penny. His mother used to work for Thomas Wayne (father of Bruce Wayne) and constantly keeps writing letters to him to help her out when she is in such a bad economic condition. Arthur wants to be a stand-up comedian, much like Murray Franklin (a famous TV show host and comedian), he loves writing jokes that are often misunderstood or deemed very ‘dark’ by other people. He has a medical condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably in awkward situations (which I think is mostly when he is sad or disheartened). One such moment occurs when Arthur sees three men trying to harass a woman on the subway, he laughs uncontrollably and the men start beating him up. In his defence, he shoots them dead. Now, this is the part that made me realise that his transformation from a weak, defenceless to a bold and unapologetic had started. He shows no remorse for his actions, even when the whole city can’t stop talking about the murders on the subway. Later, he reads a letter that her mother wrote for Thomas where she mentions that Thomas is actually Arthur’s father. Hurt by the fact that her mother had hidden this fact all along, Arthur decides to go and meet Thomas. He gets his chance later on, where Thomas reveals that Penny used to work for the Wayne family and she had delusional episodes, the truth was she imagined having a child with Thomas and Arthur was adopted. Angry and disheartened, Arthur decides to find and truth and is shocked to find that he was adopted and he also suffers the same delusional episodes like her mother from time to time as he was hit in the head and physically abused by Penny when he was small. He realises that everyone has treated him badly, neglected him and made him suffer, he realises that his thing is ‘black comedy’ or ‘dark humour’. Later he decides to kill his mother and doesn’t regret his heinous actions anymore. Meanwhile, some detectives have started suspecting and linking all the murders with Arthur. He is then called upon as guest in the Murray Franklin show as a failed video of one of his comedy routines earns fame. He decides to go dressed as a clown and confesses to all the murders on live TV. He rants about how society treats the under-privileged and people suffering from mental diseases. Finally he showcases his infamous joke, where the punchline is death and goes on to shoot Murray in the head in front of live TV. The police come and escort him out of the TV show set. Angry and violent protests erupt in the streets as people relate to what joker stood against (the oppression of the poor/sick by the wealthy). One of the rioters murders Thomas and Martha Wayne (father and mother of Bruce Wayne). In the final scenes, the joker is seen laughing about a joke which he refuses to share with the psychiatrist.

The whole movie was really a rollercoaster of emotions starting from feeling sorry and empathising with Arthur to feeling a bit happy when he first stood for himself (although the murders were a bit too much) to getting scared from what he turns out to be. Joaquin Phoenix did a commendable job as the Joker and made me feel through all these emotions. The particular part that was the best was his nervous laughs (Joker’s medical condition). Those laughs gave me the chills at times and made me feel really sorry for his character. The movie made me fall into a grey area where I’m kind of against what the Joker did but I don’t see him doing anything else after what all happened to him. I feel pity (and at times a bit happy) but also disgusted and angry on him.

Hope to see such movies later on too. I know this is not kind of a really technical or deep review, but I’ll surely re-analyse the movie and write about it later. The whole review thing works better if I wait for sometime as it gives me time to look into the same thing from different perspectives. Adios Amigos.