Great Acting Does Not A Good Movie Make

I don't go to the movies often because too often it is a waste of money. Hollywood is churning out pretty mediocre stuff. Still, I am attracted to superlative individual performances, and so it was that I joined hordes of the great unwashed (this is not a literary flourish, the theatre was packed with families who brought their infants and toddlers to the midnight showing and, of course, people who yelled at the screen, like the girls next to me who raucously derided the Maggie Gyllenhaal character as a "slut" when she kisses Christian Bale, her ex) on Friday night to take in the late Heath Ledger's performance as the The Joker in "The Dark Knight." I have to agree with Joe Morgenstern, bottom line, "Ledger Great, Movie OK."

The last two movies I went to to see on the reputed strength of an acting performance - The Last King of Scotland and There Will Be Blood - were a small whiff and a big WHIFF respectively. Strike three. Note to self.