The only part of Batman Begins that I didn’t like was Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Sure, she was pretty, but the character (as she did her) I could have done without. Now that she is a concubine baby maker for the king of Scientology, she has even less appeal to me.
The most persistent rumor in Hollywood — that Maggie Gyllenhaal has sewn up a substantial role in The Dark Knight, either as Rachel Dawes, Selena Kyle, or Harley Quinn, has gotten some new heat thrown on it, courtesy of the tipsters at Latino Review. There’s no question that Warner Bros. is their sweetspot, and they are now re-upping their original Gyllenhaal tip with the following assertion: “Now it looks like Maggie Gyllenhaal will be the new Rachel Dawes! Confirmed by two of my strongest on the money sources.” That’s a little short of saying ‘we have the news in advance — an official announcement is coming soon,’ but it does appear, based on everything we know, that Gyllenhaal is close to putting pen to paper, if she hasn’t done it already.
The one thing Katie failed to do was make the character interesting. The movie needed some vehicle to talk some reason into Bruce Wayne when he was teetering on uncontrolled. Alfred was inspiring, but too much the father figure. People don’t listen to their fathers until its too late I think the character had its purpose.
Rachel Dawes grounded him. Love interest, voice of reason, and a lot like Wayne even if their methods of fighting crime were vastly different. They both had passion. Katie didn’t have passion.
So if the rumours are true, I could see Maggie Gyllenhaal as Dawes. Shes plenty cute enough and in some pictures she almost looks like Katie. That and shes a much better actor that Katie. But that’s not a grand feat.
