at least the dark knight has a sense of humor

Last night, H and I went to see The Dark Knight, which we'd been trying to get tickets for since the movie opened last Thursday. H grew up reading the comics and was trying his best to deflect any hype before he saw it, which was becoming increasingly hard because record–ticket sales stories are all over the news. But he managed, and really enjoyed the film. (If you're sensitive to that kind of hype, consider not reading the rest of this post, even though I don't really give anything away.)

As for me, I spent the movie cowering. Heath Ledger gave a fantastic performance, and leaving the theater I was pretty sure I'd be having nightmares of knives, pencils and maniacal makeup. There are some days when I'm easily scared and freak out when I see something violent (Pan's Labryinth) and other days when I turn to people around me and mock them for acting just the same way (The Ring). This was one of those scaredy times: I had my jacket over my arms and would hold it up to the bridge of my nose or higher whenever a villain had someone by the throat. This Joker is much more terrifying than anything I'd seen on the Adam West television program. And I was pretty sure he wouldn't be challenging Batman to any surfing contests.

Scary stuff aside, what I enjoyed about the movie above all else was the location. Months ago I spotted a lot of the shooting, including Lower Wacker , the old post office (on which H saw the sign GOTHAM CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT while he was on the Architectural River Tour, Franklin Street (near my old office, where they shot the Lamborghini scene), Marina City (where my boss lives), the Chicago Board of Trade building, which I walked past every day on the way to the train station (and saw several key shots in the movie, including one with dozens of bagpipers) and most of all, the ramp to Lake Shore Drive—where Batman had a very contemplative moment—which is practically outside our front door. 

Recently, a coworker told me that H looks like Christian Bale, something about the facial bone structure, etc. I brushed that off, because H just looks like H to me. He didn't see the resemblance, either. However, while we were watching the movie I sort of saw where she's coming from: there's a hint of the same longish face, the ridge of the eyebrow and the sharp cheekbones. And I can admit that the slope of the shoulders is pretty similar, too. So when we got home I was giving him crap about it. "Hey Batman, can  you do the dishes?"

His response? "What? No way. That's Robin's job."