10 Positives Joel Schumacher Actually Brought To Batman Movies

10. Nora Fries

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin is often regarded as one of the cheesiest comic book villains ever put to screen. Whilst previous Batman villains spewed one-liners (and, in Danny DeVito’s case, black bile as well) with great comic timing and finesse, Arnie sadly gave the performance of a guffawing frozen ex-college boy who needs to beef up his bravado to match his image. All of this directly conflicts with the real reason why he is committing his crimes: not for himself, but to cure his terminally ill wife, Nora Fries.

And the involvement (even in suspended animation) of Dr. Victor Fries’s wife is one of the few (and we mean very few) saving graces of his performance. Arnie’s pain as a result of his wife’s terminal illness and the good memories that he has of their relationship, his raw anger when Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy informs him that George Clooney’s Batman has killed Nora, and his tears of relief when Batman tells him the truth and of Nora’s survival are very convincing and, at times, even moving.

Admittedly, Nora was not created by Joel Schumacher and screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, but by the creators of Batman: The Animated Series in their Emmy-award winning episode, “Heart of Ice”. However, Schumacher made the wise decision to incorporate Nora into the cinematic Freeze’s backstory as, no doubt, without her, Arnie’s Freeze would have had about as much of a character arc as his predecessors in the Adam West TV series. However, the downside is that the film ditches Nora as anything more than a vague plot point almost as soon as it introduces her rather than taking the-then daring move of perhaps even curing her ailment during the course of the movie.

As an aide, however, Schumacher cast buxom supermodel, Vendela Thommessen (now Kirsebom) in the role of Nora to satisfy red-blooded fans.