I presumed it would be all 'look I'm a lunatic' kind of acting akin to Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Don't get me wrong Jack was amazing and I loved that movie, but Phoenix's range was astounding and took it to a whole other level.
I loved it, Helen didn't. It was too dark for her.
It was really clever the way they interwove the Barman story, but not in a way that you needed to have ever seen any Batman stuff to get the most of it.
I'm not normally into 'fantasy' type stuff, but this was akin to The Dark Knight, but Phoenix was even better than Heath Ledger.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.