I went to see the movie in the theater after buying into the hype and also because it's about Joker.
When I initially learned about the project in its infancy, I wasn't convinced if Phoenix was the right person for the role. This is because I only had the character played by Heath Ledger in mind only. I was right; although Phoenix played it convincingly and the person does grab the attention, but the character that people loved in the Dark Knight is a far cry from this joker.
That character is intelligent, has high level of intellect, is ambitious, clear minded and highly sophisticated. On the other hand, the character shown in this joker is confused at best; the character has convoluted and cluttered mind. These are the traits, which I guess, comes naturally to Phoenix and looks extremely convincing when he portrays them.
The movie has no well planned and thought-out screenplay as we have seen in other batman movies from Nolan. The makers now this and deliberately tried to successfully package it as open-ended plot, when in-fact there is hardly any plot. Just the disjointed but powerful acts from Phoenix, along with strong background core, fantastic camera work and brilliant cinematography.
