If your French-isms are a little rusty like mine, it may or may not help to know that “folie à deux” translates to “the presence of the same or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another” (thanks, Merriam-Webster!). The character of the Joker (or in this incarnation, simply “Joker”) in DC Comics’ mythology is clearly delusional. But Joker: Folie à Deux plays with the idea that he, himself may be two people (a split personality of Arthur Fleck and his clown alter-ego), as well as a delusional man that has met his match in an equally delusional woman.
Folie à Deux is a follow-up Todd Phillips 2019 monster (or I should I say clown?) box office smash Joker, which split audiences and critics, but not before it made over one billion dollars at the global box office and won a Best Actor Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix. This time around, the fun is doubled by adding Lady Gaga to the mix as Lee (aka Harley Quinn), and turning the very dark story into, yes, a musical. Whether it’s successful at this, well, I’m sure fans (not critics) will get the final say.
The story picks up at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum where Arthur Fleck has been committed for five murders from the previous film and now awaits trial. The guards are cruel, the beatings are constant, and he’s required to take personality-dulling drugs to keep him (and his undefined mental illness of uncontrollable laughter) muted. One day (inexplicably), Arthur is allowed to take part in a music class with low-security inmates where he meets cute with a woman who calls herself Lee. Cute, as in she gets eye contact and pretends to shoot herself in the head. She admits she is basically his number one fan and has seen the shitty TV movie about him some 20 times. He is, unsurprisingly, besotted with this woman and her laser-like attention.
The first song seemed to cause a ripple of surprise through the audience at my screening. Remember—no joke (har har)—this IS a musical. There are so many songs that not only do you start to lose count, but you find yourself checking your watch. As it’s a jukebox musical, half the fun (or trial) is to try to recognize the super-slowed-down, grim, gothy versions of show tunes or pop hits. I have to admit, when it works, it works well. I thought the Sonny & Cher-esque fantasy rendition of the Bee Gees “To Love Somebody” was inspired: What seems to be an obsession between equals experiences a clear shift within the performance, much to Arthur’s dismay. When a song moves the plot like this, well, yay! When it’s yet another song about clowns or happiness or love presented in a dystopian or hellish way, well, yes, we get it.
In additional to being a musical, Folie à Deux is a courtroom drama, which gives the movie the opportunity to parade-in emotionally scarred characters from the previous film as witnesses, as well as be guilty of the grave sin of wasting Catherine Keener’s talents as Arthur’s defense attorney. These courtroom scenes aren’t particularly engaging or well done, and only truly light up when Arthur goofily turns around to scan the room looking for Lee.
Which brings us to Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. Phoenix completely (and unsurprisingly, considering his awards for Joker), embodies Arthur/Joker’s with his intense eyes, gaunt, skeletal frame, and greasy hair. Sure, his rubber-band pose of arching all the way back to blow cigarette smoke straight up in the air is wayyyy over done, but you still can’t take your eyes off of him. Lady Gaga is simply electric. She crackles with the intensity of an unhinged fan that is in love with a celebrity persona, and in love with the idea of celebrity. When Arthur mooningly claims that Lee “gets” him, you are never in doubt that these two are on their own, weird wavelength.
Unlike a lot of muttering critics and fans, I didn’t hate Joker: Folie à Deux. Seeing Phoenix and Gaga bounce off each other in their strange, brutal, fantasy world is like watching a car wreck. You can’t look away, even when you (or your bladder) wants you to. But do I ever want to revisit this world again? No. No I don’t. There is an excessive bleakness, cynicism, and heartbreaking despair in Joker’s Gotham. To borrow a song from the film, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. I can get this sort of hopeless misery any time by simply turning on the news.
