Eckhart plays the prosecutor in The Dark Knight, a character introduced as the city's legitimate hope and destroyed over the course of the film. He plays the early scenes with genuine idealism rather than with foreshadowing, which is what makes the collapse land: the audience has to lose someone it believed in.
He came up through independent American cinema, including several collaborations with a playwright turned director whose work is built on articulate cruelty. That background explains his comfort with characters who are persuasive and wrong, and with dialogue delivered at length without visible effort.
Recurring subjects: charm concealing something unresolved, professional men whose confidence is structural rather than personal, and conviction curdling into grievance. He plays likeability precisely, and he is willing to let it fail completely rather than preserving audience sympathy through a character's decline, which is what the part requires.
His independent film work of the late nineteen nineties, particularly a satire about corporate masculinity, drew significant critical attention. His superhero role is frequently cited as the emotional structure of a film usually discussed only for its antagonist, and the character's arc is what the plot is actually built to accomplish.
For viewers who want the supporting arc that turns out to be the point. Suited to anyone revisiting the superhero trilogy, and to those who should follow it with the independent satires that preceded it.
