They say that music soothes the savage beast. Perhaps that is why Joker: Madness for Twoby Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, seemed more tame, with its musical passages and its cooing, than the furious previous part, Joker (2019), by the same filmmaker – the blockbuster had earned Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for best actor. Because the supervillain of Batman is in love! Joker, aka Arthur Fleck, meets his Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga, in a gothic way) in the corridors of the prison. Both are equally cracked and have only one desire: to be reunited.
In the running for the Golden Lion, the film was unveiled on Wednesday, September 4, at the Mostra, the 81st of whiche edition will end on Saturday, September 7. Joker had already been honored in the Venice competition in 2019. It took place in a dark and violent New York and ended in blood: Joker ended up killing (among others) his idol, a TV celebrity (Robert de Niro) who had humiliated him live. Madness for two marks the time of love and trial. The lawyer wants to plead the mental dissociation of Joker, alias Arthur Fleck, linked to a traumatic childhood with an abusive mother.
The jury will have to answer a question: was the accused himself at the time of the act, or was he possessed by the demon Joker? Joaquin Phoenix delivers another memorable performance, the grimacing hero softening in contact with his loved one. Nagging, not to say tortuous, the question of the hero’s identity gives rise to many twists and turns, legal, intimate, interspersed with songs… Harley Quinn herself hides a few secrets.
Tap dance number
Trial filmMadness for two has the feel of a musical, even if the American director Todd Phillips, revealed with Very Bad Trip (2009), rejected the term in an interview with Variety – perhaps for fear of frightening his audience. In any case, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga deliver a lively show, which culminates in a tap-dancing number by the actor, who is accompanied by the pop star on the piano.
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The Joker and Harley Quinn seem to be two raging madmen who calm down as soon as they are in contact. The young blonde woman is capable of setting fire to a movie session with her fellow prisoners, to create a diversion and draw her lover away. The Joker will hum a poignant Ne me quitte pas/If You Go Away. The alchemy works, but for the rest, there is little invention in this slightly cloying and long-winded show.
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