Joaquin' portrayal of a sociopathic, mentally unstable man's transformation to the iconic Joker was non other than a grippingly accurate, realistic and touching rendition. A dark and disturbing character piece led by an Oscar worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix. You really do feel bad for this guy, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when he inevitably becomes the clown prince of crime we all know and love, although we've never seen him like this. We see him suffer throughout the movie to the point we're almost rooting for himk to become a mass murdering psyco clown, because that at least will make feel better; then it happens and we just wish this could have all just been avoided, because es so messed up. We feel for him and care about him. By the time he's the joker, we wish we could've helped him. There's a lot of great nods to the greater Batman universe, yet the movie is a self contained character piece. That can only be the mark of a great movie. All the acting is great, the plot (while similar to Taxi Driver) is brilliant and the quality of the movie shows you don't need CGI super powers to be a great villain in a Superhero movie. Is a joke not everyone gets. This movie is "the rise of the Joker!" 10/10