Daredevil

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. With the comic book big-screen adaptation season in full swing (Spiderman released, The Hulk out this summer, X-Men 2 before that, and The Fantastic Four on the negotiating table) it was only a matter of time before someone suggested that the nocturnal antics of an acrobatic blind lawyer with a leather fetish might be long overdue for a revival. And who's hot property? Ben Affleck, of course. He's played comic book writers; why not widen his scope a little and get him inside the book itself?

To his credit, Affleck looks the part. Deciding not to go down the Pacino approach to playing a blind man, the film puts him in designer sunglasses rather than have him defocus his eyes. Daredevil is about a man who is only technically blind; we're never allowed to forget that his enhanced senses have granted him a second sight. These particular moments are done very well: a kind of ultrasonic landscape with dark blue and violet images thrust out of a sea of landscape: part x-ray, part Francis Bacon. During the moments where we see things from Murdock's perspective we can almost start to empathise with this disabled vigilante: sudden loud noises confuse and disorient him, and he has to sleep in a water-filled coffin to get a decent night's sleep, rising in the mornings like a blood-sucking vampire dressed up for the courtroom. (It's quietly appropriate, perhaps, that he's playing a lawyer.)

Unfortunately this is the film's chief failing: it's all very well to give characters depth, or a raison d'etre (here provided by the film's prologue, which, you know, doesn't foreshadow anything later at all, really). But in doing so Daredevil concentrates too much on the tortured soul element and not enough on the action. Cue long, lingering shots of Affleck standing on rooftops in the pouring rain, gazing out at the city and whining "I'm not the bad guy", or staring hard at the girl he's fallen for in one of those tortuous "Oh, if only he could SEE her!" moments. Not to mention the fact that some of the dialogue is absolutely excruciating.

When the action hots up, it's impressive. Colin Farrell is excellent as Bullseye, the Irish assassin who can turn the most seemingly innocent household object into a deadly weapon (most people shuffle playing cards; he'll slit your throat with them). Despite a vaguely stereotypical entrance (it's an Irish character in an English pub, so of course they're playing House of Pain) he is more than a match for our leather-clad hero, both in terms of ability and screen presence.

Also good is Jennifer Garner, who manages to portray both the sensitive and militant styles of Elektra Natchios. And Michael Clarke Duncan may not have been an obvious choice for The Kingpin, but he's nonetheless imposing and appropriately creepy, although you end up wishing that they'd covered more of his back story.

Ultimately, Daredevil's problem lies in its indecision. It can't make up its mind whether to be a straight-out comic adaptation or jump to the brooding darkness that Tim Burton took in Batman Returns: as such you're never quite sure what you're watching, and things get uncomfortable. All credit to the actors for doing their best with some occasionally shoddy material, but the attempts to lighten the mood aren't usually enough. It's a pleasing effort, but some awesome action sequences, a few good one-liners and an amusing cameo can't prevent this from ultimately being a little more preachy and ponderous than it needs to be.

(Sunday, 17th February 2003)