Wayne family butler has acted as his master’s conscience throughout the films and he’s at it again here, challenging the bruised
billionaire about what he could achieve if he sought social justice instead of rough. Indeed, there’s a sense that Wayne has regressed
back to the boy of Begins, his journey out of the grief of his orphaning reset by the death of his childhood love.
As Gotham prospers in the wake of the criminal crackdown brought about by the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent — and his
mythologising by Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) — Wayne feels he can stay hidden in his mansion, a truculent Beast resisting being
transformed by Marion Cotillard’s Beauty. Where his parents were active, engaged philanthropists, giving life to the city, Wayne nurses
only his own grief. He walks with a stick as symbolic of his psychological frailty as his physical degeneration. Here, the film could be
said to be going over old ground, but Wayne’s mental fissure has been mined in the comics for 73 years and it’s testament to Christian
Bale’s stalwart, admirably unshowy but soulful performance that we once again feel for a man born to privilege but eternally trapped in
a personal prison.
This is aided by a valedictory feel to the first act, with everything freighted with the knowledge of its finality and a sense that this
will not end well.
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Caine is all heart in a beautiful recollection about his hopes for his surrogate son, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt — who looks supremely
dashing despite a somewhat glamour-free role as a rozzer — also has a sorrow-fuelled speech, but with a more positive sense of belief to
counter Bane’s destructive faith.
Then, when Batman finally returns, you relish the gleeful comment of a copper to a younger colleague: “Boy, you are in for a show tonight,
son.” That you are, even if the film doesn’t, until the very end, match the emotional tenor of its blistering beginning. That 45 minutes
or so can be called the ‘beginning’ gives a clue that Batman not only rises but lengthens. This is a long film that feels weighed down
somewhat in its middle section, struggling to carry the weight of exposition. The desire for scale and belief-beggaring action also means
that, curiously, what would be other movies’ budget-blitzing conclusions are reduced, in a way, to the level of mild incident. There is
more plot here than there is story and as impressive as certain scenes are — the sporting spectacle seen in the trailer, for example — they
can feel a little like a very expensive treadmill when you’re waiting for the emotions to really run.
As ever, Nolan’s Batman is at its best in the more intimate moments — whether it’s a man finally realising a hero’s identity, or the scene-
stealing
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