‘Joker: Folie A Deux’: Venice Review

Dir: Todd Phillips. US. 2024. 138mins

Can two demented individuals with a song in their heart find love? Joker: Folie A Deux pairs Gotham’s Clown Prince Of Crime with Harley Quinn, resulting in an ambitious sequel whose big swings mostly turn out to be misses. Part musical, part courtroom drama, this follow-up to the 2019 Oscar-winning sensation further explores the fractured mind of the murderous Arthur Fleck, but without the insight that made the original film so engrossing and unsettling. Joaquin Phoenix demonstrates again his willingness to take risks — in this case, singing alongside the far more technically skilled Lady Gaga — but a performance that was once so attuned to his character’s fragile mental state is, in Folie A Deux, littered with familiar flourishes.

Lukewarm chemistry

Warner Bros. unveils Folie a Deux at Venice, where the original took home the Golden Lion on its way to grossing $1.1 billion worldwide. Gaga only adds to the commercial firepower of this highly-anticipated sequel, which opens in the UK and US on October 4, although the picture’s musical trappings could slightly dampen advance enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Folie a Deux seems poised for strong box office.

Set two years after Joker, which ended with failed stand-up Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) killing talk-show host Murray Franklin live on air, this follow-up focuses on Arthur’s murder trial. His lawyer Maryanne (Catherine Keener) wants to prove that her client was under mental duress in order to spare him from the electric chair, but Arthur seems more interested in fellow prisoner Lee (Gaga). Quickly realising that she is as disturbed as he is — she has a penchant for random arson — Arthur falls for Lee, who has been obsessed with him since he assassinated Murray.

Give Folie a Deux credit for being as bold as the 2019 film, with returning director and co-writer Todd Phillips plunging us back into the darkness of early-1980s Gotham City. Reuniting with many of his Joker collaborators — most importantly, cinematographer Lawrence Sher and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir — the filmmaker attempts to make a sequel that is not a carbon copy of the previous picture but, rather, represents a stylistic shift that seeks to interrogate its frighteningly unwell protagonist.

Part of that strategy involves incorporating musical numbers into the narrative. Some are fantasy sequences which take place within the characters’ minds, while others simply find Arthur and Lee breaking out into nonchalant singing in the middle of an otherwise traditional dramatic scene. Not surprisingly, Gaga shines during these set pieces, whether sweetly crooning ‘(They Long To Be) Close To You’ or belting ‘Gonna Build A Mountain’ in amped-up R&B/gospel mode. But Phoenix struggles. To be sure, his frailer singing captures Arthur’s brittle psyche but, when his character is supposed to have a cathartic moment — such as during a fiery rendition of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s ‘The Joker’ — this gifted, vulnerable actor simply does not have the chops to make the song galvanising.

But the blame also goes to Phillips, who shows little ingenuity in his staging. Neither euphoric nor edgy, sentimental or sarcastic, the musical sequences reside in an unsatisfying, indifferent middle ground, never zeroing in on the emotional undercurrents of these popular songs which are intended to sketch out Arthur and Lee’s mad romance. This lack of spark is just as apparent in Phoenix and Gaga’s non-singing scenes. As convincing as Gaga is as this unstable woman destined to become his fabled soulmate Harley Quinn (portrayed by Margot Robbie in other DC films) she and her costar’s chemistry is only lukewarm. Meanwhile, Phoenix, who played Arthur in Joker as a traumatised failure falling to pieces with such tenderness and volatility, merely repeats those mannerisms here, to far less commanding effect.

Opening with a Looney Tunes-style animation sequence designed by Triplets Of Belleville auteur Sylvain Chomet, Folie A Deux tries commenting on social issues, including our society’s fixation on mass murderers. Unfortunately, once the film becomes a drab courtroom piece, Phillips has trouble propelling the narrative forward. There is a mystery at the story’s centre — does Lee love sensitive Arthur or does she really love the devilish Joker? — but the film wobbles whenever it takes a stab at investigating these warring personae within his broken soul.

Folie a Deux’s shocking final sequence suggests a new way of thinking about Joker’s cinematic legacy — as well as the ways that violence begets violence. But where the original Joker remains a stunning exception — that rare blockbuster with emotional shading, grownup themes and a genuine sense of grandeur — this sequel fails to stay on the beat.