The Star Ledger

Betty and Bimbo got walloped by "The Dark Knight" in Queens last night after taking in some of the most unique and tasty Thai food in the United States! As we recover from both happy shake-ups to our systems, we feel compelled to say just one thing for the record.

Heath Ledger did NOT go crazy by getting "too into the role of the Joker" as Jack Nicholson and others have implied or just stated with a grave and attention-grabbing pomposity.

Don't get us wrong: Ledger is fully awesome in the movie! He's working at full strength, kicking his gifts into high gear, performing at a fever pitch and letting his character bask in the near-nihilistic fun of action movies, synthesizing his talents with the script to give us a gasp-making performance that is the definition of entertainment.

You want him to be on the screen all the time, moving and jittering his limbs and swooping in like an overgrown imp and smacking his drooly lips and intoning the script's best lines in a voice that makes him sound like a demented Al Franken. His greasy green-tinted post-pool curly hair and smeared make-up is the creation of a genius (costume designer, please step up!) and his long coat and tight suit look like they've never been washed or taken off, and hide tightly-wound wounds and smelly chaos. And you gotta see him in a Nurse Betty get-up! He's a live wire, and totally scary and attractive at all times.

This is just to say that all of this thoughtful detail that makes a character who is an atmosphere unto himself is part of a great movie performance - Ledger balancing and deploying many new and old tools to drive us - the audience! -crazy. He is wildly successful, which is a testament to his imagination, his skill, and his sanity.

Like, duh.

"Sex and the City" Not a Dog

Hey! The "Sex and the City" movie was not too awful! Yes, the script was ostentatiously lazy (and relied too much on screeching to convey joy), but visually the movie drew in and held the eye and emotionally it often made sense. Like the show, you can welcome it into your life no matter how you're feeling -- it's like an aspirin taken in ice cream. And there were some funny lines, maybe about 20 of them!

First off, a word to address to those who will charge that the movie is bad for women or bad for everyone. The film, like the show, takes place on a fictional plane of reality and should not be berated for that. Once we understand "Sex" like we understand "The Simpsons," and see Carrie's shoe collection as we see Homer's donuts (or whatever)-- then we can kick back and enjoy the real and sticky jelly-joy that awaits us behind the glazey sprinkley exterior.

Enchantment has its uses. Unlike Anthony Lane, I can only conclude that the writers did a great job stretching the material to cover 2.5 hours. The story, though grand in its events, is simple in its messages: that forgiveness is better than bitterness, and that there a exist a muliplicity of Goods and Good Lives, and that it's up to each one of us -- like children on a scavenger hunt -- to make a Good Life from the Goods that work for us. We must make our own treasure maps.

Though simple to understand, this message is not easy to live by, and it's a good thing the movie is so fun and ridiculous and illogical -- all qualities that make its moral even more memorable, as attractive to contemplate as it is difficult to realize.

All four actresses were good in the film, with Sarah Jessica Parker taking a few unexpected trips into telenovela-acting territory. But Kristin Davis deserves special recognition for her gifts as a comedienne (Yes! Lucy style!), including the jumpiest cartoon eyes this side of Itchy and Scratchy.

Hunk Alert!!

In which Betty offers just two reasons to watch 1962's Cape Fear:



It's a pretty good story and film, too! The music is by Bernard Hermann and the drama is intense! But the Mitchum/Peck yin-yang is the heart of the thing. See it today!

Yeah, This Pretty Much Sums It Up Right Here

Robert Mitchum

Betty, do you take songwriting commissions? Because someone needs to write one about Robert Mitchum. The Himmelbritts watched Night of the Hunter last night and were both awed and spooked. Mitchum rivaled his performance in Cape Fear in creating a truly sinister character who was both unpredictable and made your skin crawl. This movie is worth watching just for the incredible cinematography, but it is also one of the most disturbing stories about childhood trauma and children in danger that I've seen. In this movie, Mitchum famously wrestles his right and left hands, tattooed with the words "Love" and "Hate." He also wears an unforgettable hat and sings spirituals like nobody's business. The vision of his silhouette on the horizon line is enough to send your stomach churning.

In Cape Fear, Mitchum uses his body and bulk to create his character in a way that steadily increases his threat. One of the most exciting cinematic experiences I've had was watching the original Cape Fear and Martin Scorscese's remake back-to-back (Mitchum is in both!). They are both haunting in very different ways. In the original Cape Fear, Mitchum invokes a sense of sexual menace that is turned on its head in his role as a maniacal sex-disgusted preacher in Night of the Hunter.

He played a less threatening role in the very good Out of the Past, but I think I like Mitchum best at high creep factor. Any recs for other good Mitchum performances?