Joker: Folie à Deux – Fails to Capture the Magic of the Original
By Pavethran Batmanathen
It’s almost hard to believe now, but before Todd Phillips’s Joker hit theaters, many critics and online commentators were convinced the film was “dangerous.” Some even feared that screenings would trigger waves of violence, as if the audience would lose themselves in chaos after watching Arthur Fleck’s unsettling transformation set to Gary Glitter’s “Rock n’ Roll Part 2.” None of that happened, of course.
What did happen was Joker becoming a box office smash, grossing over a billion dollars worldwide and winning Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for his portrayal of Fleck.Yet, in Joker: Folie à Deux, it feels like Phillips may have taken those initial concerns to heart. This time around, the narrative shifts focus.
Instead of delving deeper into Fleck’s psychological unraveling, the sequel reframes his story as more of a tragedy—a tale of a man scarred by trauma who becomes a monster. This angle was touched upon in the original, but this sequel makes a concerted effort to set Arthur’s journey apart from the established lore of the Joker from Batman’s universe.
It strives to create something more distinct, more removed from the comic-book canon.Unfortunately, that shift in tone didn’t land well for everyone. At the screening I attended, fans dressed as Joker and Harley Quinn left looking somewhat disappointed when the credits rolled.
Despite a bigger budget and a longer running time, Folie à Deux doesn’t pack the same punch as the original. It lacks the dark, visceral impact that defined Joker, feeling instead like a bloated exercise in style.Perhaps the original film’s massive success guaranteed a sequel, but Folie à Deux gives off the vibe of a project Todd Phillips made simply because he could, rather than one he felt had to be made.
By dipping into the musical genre, it almost seems like Phillips is testing the waters for a future full-blown musical project. But here, those elements feel like brief distractions, with musical numbers providing the few sparks in an otherwise meandering film.
Without those sequences, Folie à Deux would feel more like an unnecessary postscript to what was once a tightly wound, powerful story.Joaquin Phoenix returns as Arthur Fleck, delivering another strong performance. This time, however, he doesn’t get the same moments to shine.
While Phoenix shows off his vocal chops with covers of artists like Stevie Wonder and The Carpenters, the character himself feels more passive, lacking the terrifying outbursts that made the original film so intense. In fact, the film as a whole is surprisingly restrained in terms of violence, save for one particularly grisly fantasy scene.
Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated role as Lee, a reimagined Harley Quinn, also falls flat. Despite all the hype, her character feels oddly inconsequential. Known for her powerful on-screen presence, Gaga is surprisingly muted here, leaving audiences yearning for the fireworks her pairing with Phoenix promised.
It’s not that either of them is bad, but the film never quite reaches the operatic heights it seems to aim for. Instead, it feels like Phillips is riffing on Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York, with its glitzy musical sequences juxtaposed against heavy melodrama. The supporting cast fares similarly.
Brendan Gleeson’s psychiatric guard seems to belong in a 1940s gangster movie, while Steve Coogan’s over-the-top performance as a reporter interviewing Fleck feels out of place. The one standout is Leigh Gill, reprising his role as one of Arthur’s former co-workers. His courtroom testimony provides the film’s most striking moment and lingers as one of its few memorable scenes.
Despite being shot for IMAX, Joker: Folie à Deux is curiously devoid of jaw-dropping visual moments. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher does deliver some impressive shots, and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is as haunting as ever, but the film never quite hits the high notes audiences might expect from such a spectacle.In the end, Joker: Folie à Deux suffers from the same fate as Phillips’s Hangover sequels.
It simply can’t recapture the magic of the original. The first Joker was lightning in a bottle, a film that felt both thrilling and dangerous. This sequel, by contrast, feels more like a stylish experiment in form than a necessary continuation of Fleck’s story.
That said, Phillips has proven in the past that he’s capable of surprising audiences, so while Folie à Deux might not be the triumph fans hoped for, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s got another masterpiece hidden up his sleeve. For now, though, his foray into the DC Universe seems to be coming to an end—and after watching Folie à Deux, maybe that’s for the best.
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