Advanced degrees are no protection against bad taste in boyfriends
degree), her broken past, and her “obsessive-compulsive need for attention,” in her words. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t dig deeper into some of these idiosyncratic intricacies of character — but hey, there’s always the sequel.
You don’t need much previous knowledge to get up to speed, thanks to a clever animated intro, narrated by Harley (in a less-than-convincing Brooklyn-Gotham accent, it must be said).
Born Harleen Quinzel, Harley became a shrink only to fall in love with Mr. J at Arkham, proving once again that advanced degrees are no protection against bad taste in boyfriends.
As the action begins, Harley has been given the boot by her mercurial lover. “I handled it real mature,” she notes with sarcasm. Revenge is topmost on her mind. She decides to blow up the Ace Chemicals Processing Plant, a place important to the Joker, just as some people “have their Eiffel Tower, or their Olive Garden.”
Harley quickly learns that a byproduct of her new singledom is that she’s no longer shielded by people’s fear of the Joker — in other words, everyone she ever slighted is now out to get her.
And those slights, we learn in a witty, lightning-quick graphic, include everything from possessing a female reproductive organ to — did we catch this right? — voting for Bernie, presumably against Hillary.
Most dangerously, her new enemies include Roman and his sadistic assistant, Zsasz (Chris Messina). Roman likes to hang people upside down and order their faces scalped off, but in McGregor’s wry performance, he’s less than terrifying, especially compared to Zsasz who is truly, deeply creepy.
Let’s just quickly mention that things really get going when young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) steals and then swallows a precious diamond, in which crucial secrets are embedded.
Harley offers to get the diamond; otherwise, Roman will kill her.
The other major players, joining forces to fight Roman, are Montoya, a tough Gotham detective (the reliable Rosie Perez); Black Canary, or singer Dinah Lance (a lovely Jurnee Smollett-Bell); and the Huntress, aka Helena Bertinelli (an understated Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a mob daughter bent on avenging her family’s killers.
One gets the sense the filmmakers weren’t quite sure how far to go with the feminism thing.
When she says sadly that “a harlequin’s nothing without a master,” you don’t immediately get the sense that this is a post #MeToo Harley Quinn.
Like we said, there’s always the sequel.