REVIEW: ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is a dramatic flip on a classic Joker story – The Miami Hurricane

When the trailer dropped for the sequel to the smash hit “Joker” movie, many fans of the movie were rightfully excited. The announcement that Lady Gaga would be joining Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker as Harley Quinn only made anticipation for the movie to grow higher and higher. 

What no fan probably expected was the announcement that Joker: Folie à Deux would be released as a musical, with Gaga releasing a companion album to the movie. 

The sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux” focuses on the aftermath of the first Joker movie, where failing comedian Arthur Fleck, spurred by the scorn directed at him by society, on live camera murders a TV show host before being taken into custody. 

Now, two years after this crime, Arthur is being evaluated at Arkham Asylum awaiting trial. Arthur has been a model patient, barely saying a word, with his defense lawyer believing his Joker persona to be a split personality. This peaceful behavior changes however when he meets Harley Quinzel, an inmate who claims to have been incarcerated due to arson. 

Gaga’s Harley right off the bat gives us a different feel than the classic Harley. We’ve been used to the professional psychiatrist who eventually falls for her patient. This version of Harley however is already aware of him. It’s a nice touch that immediately gives us insight into the differences this movie will have with classic depictions of Harley. 

Harley is deeply infatuated with Arthur, but more specifically, his Joker side. The two quickly connect, even attempting to escape the Asylum during a film screening. However, the escape is botched and Arthur placed in solitary confinement. 

These first few scenes do a great job of building Harley and Arthur’s relationship. As a musical, any scene that has importance in developing one of the characters is almost always accompanied by a musical scene. 

This is used by the movie repeatedly to portray the typical love story of Joker and Harley Quinn. While Harley’s personality is drastically different, it appears at face value that we are getting the expected outcomes of their relationship.

We see scenes of them romantically dancing through the rain, and Arthur performs a cover of “For Once in My Life” by Ron Miller, announcing his newly discovered love for Harley. These musical moments show that despite their circumstances, Harley and Arthur feel absolutely unstoppable together. 

Before he is taken to trial, Harley reveals she is being released and promises to attend every day of the trial, making an appearance in the iconic Harley Quin makeup. The trial takes place over the span of three days, and is the majority of the movie from this point onward. Arthur ultimately starts to lose himself more and more as he leans into the Joker persona as a defense mechanism. 

It’s important to note that this is not originally his own idea, but rather at the insistence of Harley. In a way, it’s a similar situation to Joker forming Harley in traditional comics. Instead, Harley is shaping the Joker into the perfect man that she wants. Eventually, Arthur is so pressured by his circumstances that on the final day of the trial, he rejects the identity of Joker. 

While the closing statements are being given, a car bomb explodes, taking out a section of the courtroom and allowing Arthur to escape. He makes his way to Harley’s apartment, where she scorns him for renouncing his persona, and leaves as he is surrounded by police cars and taken into custody. 

Harley’s refusal of this version of Arthur is where I believe the movie truly showed originality within the story of Joker. Audiences have become well acquainted with the idea of Joker and Harley’s dynamic, with most classic depictions showing Joker as a manipulative lover who does not actually care whatsoever about Harley.

 In this version however, the roles are swapped. Harley instead has been the one in control, subtly pushing Arthur more and more to fall into insanity so that he will fulfill this role as Joker. 

Arthur is madly in love with Harley, to the point where upon escaping, his first instinct is to go to her. This makes Harley’s rejection all the more painful to Arthur. He finally has felt that he has a tie to someone who understands him, when in reality he was simply being used to fulfill a fantasy that Harley had. 

Critics and fans regard Joaquin’s Joker as being much more humanistic, almost pitiable. This carries through into the sequel, establishing Arthur as much more of a victim of circumstance rather than a criminal mastermind. Harley in this movie is much closer to the typical role of the Joker. 

In fact, when Arthur does try to lean back into this role of Joker at Harley’s insistence, he ends up in much more trouble, and ultimately rejects it. 

“Joker: Folie A Deux” ultimately had a promising start, but there were some issues with the movie. While this film was teased as the development of Harley and Joker, it feels almost as if the producers forgot that they had Harley to work with outside of the supporting musical roles. 

Besides the beginning of the movie, she rarely makes screen time outside of the musical numbers. While Gaga truly put an impressive amount of effort into this role and absolutely had some iconic moments within the music numbers, it felt like she was given a disadvantage with the writing. 

Lots of the situations in the movie progressed too slowly. The movie is really just the trial of Arthur Fleck, and the mental struggles that he goes through in determining if he truly is Joker. The three days of the trial are the majority of the movie, and it’s overly apparent with the lack of actual activity going on. 

Folie à Deux has moments where it did not need  a song at that moment. Tense plot points peak, and then all of that tension would get killed off by the sudden break into song and dance. 

That said, the musical moments did have a great impact on the movie, the portrayal of Joker and Harley’s relationship in each number is almost completely different each time. Joaquin and Gaga do an incredible job of demonstrating the subtle emotional changes that their characters were going through. 

During “Gonna Build a Mountain”, where Harley and Arthur imagine their life after the trial, we are implicitly told this musical is all happening inside of his head. This bleed over of fantasy into reality did an excellent job of showing the Joker’s psychosis. 

The lack of actual plot points dragged these moments into the ground. While maybe not the best sequel to the 2019 Joker film, “Folie à Deux” is still a vivid and great piece of cinematography and art.