Joker: Folie à Deux is the much-anticipated sequel to the 2019 award-winning origin film of the infamous titular character. Directed by Todd Phillips, the sequel extends the study on the psyche of the narcissistic Clown Prince of Crime, this time bringing a partner in crime, Harley Quinn, into the mix.

Set two years after Joker, the film catches the audience up with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) in Arkham State Hospital. Awaiting trial for his crimes, he lives a monotonous life, dragging his malnourished and increasingly gaunt figure out of his cell, lining up to pour his pee into the sink first thing in the morning, getting his medication, and meeting his lawyer, who convinces him that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) and that the “Joker” identity is responsible for his crimes. Perhaps Arthur truly believes that, perhaps he does not and is secretly biding his time. Either way, he is considered a model inmate for his good behaviour and is allowed to join patients from another ward in music therapy sessions. Here he meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) who seemingly idolises him and admires the Joker’s crimes. For better or worse, they connect and engage in a swirling whirlwind of musical folie à deux.

Before I begin, I am not a huge fan of the 2019 film, and find it bizarrely overpraised. While I find the idea of wedding Joker with other sociopathic characters like Rupert Pupkin (King of Comedy) and Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) a smart one, the film is derivative at best and in my opinion never manages to find the right tone in portraying the dark and twisted alongside the tragic, pathetic nature of the titular character. I never buy into the escalation of violence and the rise of Joker as a political symbol at the end of that film either. That being said, the film is still decent for its gripping tension and indelible performances. The final scene, where the film implies that Joker kills his psychiatrist, is perhaps the most pitch-perfect scene in the film where I wish that the film has more of that, and now (after watching the sequel), that Folie à Deux has any of that.

Starting off strong with a parody of Looney Tunes featuring an animated Joker and the introduction of a muted Arthur Fleck, who never responds to the guards’ requests for a joke, the tension is immediately palpable when Arthur quietly scans the room while being shaved by a guard, as if calculating his chances of escape. The first interactions with Harley Quinn are showstoppers as both Phoenix and Gaga bounce off each other’s energy and prove why they are perfect for the roles. With the music therapy sessions, the element of singing is introduced and the characters break into musical numbers, sometimes in fantasy, sometimes in reality. And that, unfortunately, is where the film starts to derail.

Musicals are effective in expressing characters’ emotions and inner workings, particularly in a soaring and sometimes hyperbolic way. In this sequel, Todd Phillips never quite successfully takes advantage of the format and allows the wildness of Joker to shine through manic musical numbers. A major reason is that most musical sequences in which Arthur dresses as Joker and interacts with Lee Quinzel are phantasias, rather than real-life sequences that have consequences. As a result, none of the dreadfulness and masochism truly gets across as effectively as a simple tilted dance to a cello solo in the first Joker film does. In fact, that and the dance Arthur did on the Murray Franklin show should have been the bars to clear for Phillips and his writers for this musical, though it was not to be.

Instead, in Folie à Deux, musical sequences are used to portray an isolated and lonely soul falling in love with a girl whom he thinks is the only one who understands him. While there is nothing wrong with that and it could be an interesting direction for the character, it should not have been at the expense of resetting Arthur back to the pathetic loner we saw at the beginning of Joker. This is not the state in which the previous film left the character. Arthur, through his narcissism and isolation from society, evolved, or rather devolved, into the clown assailant. There is a brilliant fantasy sequence in the film in which Joker causes mayhem in the courtroom that made me wish the rest of the film goes in that direction, not just in fantasy.

In place of a plot, we get a dreary and lengthy courtroom trial that revolves around identity disorders and whether Joker is a split personality of Arthur’s. While problematic at its core, the biggest problem with this debate is that, once again, this is not where we left off in the first film. Whether Joker is a split personality is not a question that needed answering, particularly after the aforementioned scene with the psychiatrist where Arthur fully embraces and revels in the sociopath within him. With the sequel anchoring itself in an unnecessary debate and musical sequences that fall short of the potential of the titular character, there are no stakes and driving force to propel the film and keep the audience engaged for the bulk of it.

On the plus side, Joaquin Phoenix has once again proven himself to be perfect for the role. His chemistry with Lady Gaga is sparkling, despite the very little real screen time they share. Lee Quinzel is severely underused as the romantic counterpart to Joker. With what little is there for the character, Lady Gaga’s fierce performance pierces right through the soup of pretensions and faux arthouse dreariness. Catherine Keener as Arthur’s lawyer Marianne Stuart is sharp and her intentions hard to read, making her more dangerous than Arthur ever is in the film. To my dismay, however, her character disappears halfway through. Harry Lawtey as the opportunistic Harvey Dent is equally memorable despite his limited screentime.

Hildur Guðnadóttir returns as film composer for the sequel after the Oscar-winning effort for the first film. Her arrangement of oldie covers by Gaga and Phoenix gives the film a coherent sound, and her cello-heavy score works magic in making the film at least watchable. The film also benefits from Lawrence Sher’s beautiful cinematography and Arianna Phillips’s costume designs.

Coming out of the cinema, Joker: Folie à Deux left me pondering what went wrong and for whom the film is actually intended. I do not consider myself a huge fan of the first Joker film and I did not enjoy the sequel, and I certainly could not imagine fans of the first film enjoying this either. When I read that Todd Phillips considered the musical idea and banked on moviegoers’ appetite for something new and different, yet struggled to describe the film as a musical, I got my answer. If the starting point for making a film is wrong and the filmmakers do not have the courage of their convictions, the result is simply not going to right itself.

Author: Chia Jing Heng (andreusjh99)