background (a PhD and perhaps a medical
degree), her broken past, and her “obsessive-
compulsive need for attention,” in her words. It’s
a shame the movie doesn’t dig deeper into some
of these idiosyncratic intricacies of character —
but hey, there’s always the sequel.
You don’t need much previous knowledge to
get up to speed, thanks to a clever animated
intro, narrated by Harley (in a less-than-
convincing Brooklyn-Gotham accent, it must
be said). Born Harleen Quinzel, Harley became
a shrink only to fall in love with Mr. J at Arkham,
proving once again that advanced degrees are
no protection against bad taste in boyfriends.
As the action begins, Harley has been given
the boot by her mercurial lover. “I handled it
real mature,” she notes with sarcasm. Revenge
is topmost on her mind. She decides to blow
up the Ace Chemicals Processing Plant, a place
important to the Joker, just as some people
“have their Eiffel Tower, or their Olive Garden.”
Harley quickly learns that a byproduct of her
new singledom is that she’s no longer shielded
by people’s fear of the Joker — in other words,
everyone she ever slighted is now out to get
her. And those slights, we learn in a witty,
lightning-quick graphic, include everything
from possessing a female reproductive organ to
— did we catch this right? — voting for Bernie,
presumably against Hillary.
Most dangerously, her new enemies include
Roman and his sadistic assistant, Zsasz (Chris
Messina). Roman likes to hang people upside
down and order their faces scalped off, but in
McGregor’s wry performance, he’s less than
terrifying, especially compared to Zsasz who is
truly, deeply creepy.