The Sheila Variations

Yayyyy!!!!

For our unsung hero of the week ...

Berardinelli has this to say:

Keaton, Kilmer, and Clooney allowed the costume to dominate their performances. Here, it's the other way around. Bale comes close to being the definitive Batman.

!!!!! Hoo-yah! Revenge!! I've read mixed reviews of the film, and most of the criticisms seem to say: "woah. It's frigging BATMAN, okay, not Clausewitz. It takes itself waaaayyy too seriously." However: Berardinelli is one of my most trustworthy reviewers and I am so pleased to see Christian Bale (you know: THE STAR OF THE FILM) get some props, in light of the moronic behavior of his dipshit brainwashed-in-6-weeks costar.

And here's my mean side coming out: She's been getting uniformly bad reviews. I'm glad. I'm unabashedly glad.

Strange. I've always liked her in the past. I liked Dawson's Creek, I liked her in Ice Storm, in Wonder Boys ... I think she has the qualities of a young Michelle Pfeiffer, and also that much potential.

But I'm glad that the bubble has burst, at least in terms of her reviews. Maybe it'll be a necessary shock of reality in her nutso BT-ridden world. I look forward to the day (which I believe is inevitable) when this "magnificent woman" (according to her OT-6-level boyfriend) is single again, and able to get back to the business of her career. It's bound to happen. She deserves it.

But let me reiterate: Yay for Christian Bale. Give the boy the props!!

And here is what Ebert has to say:

This is at last the Batman movie I've been waiting for. The character resonates more deeply with me than the other comic superheroes, perhaps because when I discovered him as a child, he seemed darker and more grown-up than the cheerful Superman. He has secrets. As Alfred muses: "Strange injuries and a nonexistent social life. These things beg the question, what does Bruce Wayne do with his time?"

AWESOME. I realize I am treating this like a personal triumph, which is completely inappropriate because I had nothing to do with this movie ... but still. After the publicity-hogging red-carpet behavior of TomKat over the last few weeks, I think it's about time that people pay attention to ... uhm ... you know ... THE MOVIE. Good.

Ebert on Bale:

Bale is just right for this emerging version of Batman. It's strange to see him muscular and toned, after his cadaverous appearance in "The Machinist," but he suggests an inward quality that suits the character.

And he ends with this slam-dunk:

I said this is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it.

Again: I feel a surge of inappropriate pride and victory. Sheila, you were not involved in the making of this film .... Sorry. Still: YAY!!!!

More from the New York Times.

Read the first damn paragraph.

Near the big-bang finish of "Batman Begins," the title avenger, played by the charismatic young British actor Christian Bale, scoops up a damsel in distress, played by Katie Holmes, and spirits her away to his lair. Watching this scene, it was hard not to think how nice it would have been if Batman had instead dispatched the infernally perky actress, whose recent off-screen antics have threatened to eclipse this unexpectedly good movie. As it happens, the most memorable rescue mission in "Batman Begins" isn't engineered by the caped crusader, but by the film's director, Christopher Nolan.

I can only imagine how displeased Warner Brothers is with her right now. That's what I 'get' from that paragraph, and so many others. She has been reprimanded - she has tried to rectify matters - but she can't help herself. Interviewers only want to know about Tom, so she only talks about Tom ... and the whole circus completely took over. It was forgotten that an actual FILM was about to open.

But still: let's get back to Bale. Here's some snippets from the Times about Bale's performance:

Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kane's original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director who takes his material seriously and to a star who shoulders that seriousness with ease. Until now, Mr. Bale, who cut his teeth working with Steven Spielberg on "Empire of the Sun" almost two decades ago, has been best known for his scarily plausible performance in "American Psycho," an intellectual horror movie that now seems like a prelude to this one: think American Psycho redux, this time in tights.

As sleek as a panther, with cheekbones that look sharp enough to give even an ardent lover pause, Mr. Bale makes a superbly menacing avenger. His Batman is leagues away from Adam West's cartoony persona, which lumbered across American television screens in the mid- and late-60's with zap and pow, but never an ounce of real wow. Mr. Bale even improves on Michael Keaton, who donned Batman's cape both in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" and its funhouse sequel three years later, and gave the character a jolt of menace. What Mr. Keaton couldn't bring to the role, and what Mr. Bale conveys effortlessly, is Bruce Wayne's air of casual entitlement, the aristocratic hauteur that is the necessary complement of Batman's obsessive megalomania.

Also, big ol' props to director Christopher Nolan - which really pleases me:

What Mr. Nolan gets, and gets better than any other previous director, is that without Bruce Wayne, Batman is just a rich wacko with illusions of grandeur and a terrific pair of support hose. Without his suave alter ego, this weird bat man is a superhero without humanity, an avenger without a conscious, an id without a superego. Which is why, working from his and David S. Goyer's very fine screenplay, Mr. Nolan more or less begins at the beginning, taking Batman back to his original trauma and the death of his parents. With narrative economy and tangible feeling, he stages that terrible, defining moment when young Master Wayne watched a criminal shoot his parents to death in a Gotham City alley, thereby setting into motion his long, strange journey into the self.

Gonna have to see this one.

Posted by sheila