I had the same opinion about the first two Harry Potter films as most critics: that they were solidly made, well-cast films that were almost bereft of fun thanks to the overfaithful adaptations and director Chris Columbus' blatantly Hollywood sensibilities. Not being a huge fan of the books (I've read the first two, though I'm told the series improves with the later additions), I found Columbus' plodding adherence to plot details while ignoring visual and storytelling details annoying. Columbus' vision looked exactly like a Hollywood film studio's conception of a very English book, kitted out with luminaries like Richard Harris and Maggie Smith for an air of authenticity. Thus, I was interested to see what Alfonso Cuaron, director of last year's lyrical Y Tu Mama Tambien and the more age-appropriate A Little Princess, would bring to the franchise.
Thankfully, it's clear that things will be different this time around from the first scene, in which we see the burgeoning adolescent wizard Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) playing with his wand under the covers late at night. We're then reintroduced to his life away from Hogwart's School with his horrible 'muggle' adoptive family, the Dursleys. After a visiting aunt pushes Harry too far, resulting in some unauthorized magic, Harry runs away (mercifully, this sequence is brief, as the scenes of Harry's torment at the hands of the Dursleys are becoming extremely tedious). He's picked up by the triple-decker Knight Bus, a magical conveyance that, in a nicely accomplished setpiece, weaves through muggle traffic at impossible speeds, returning Harry to the unseen magical realm that coexists with present-day England. The bus is the first indication that we're not in Columbus anymore, Toto. With its grimy windows and yellow lights, it looks like something out of the fifties. The conductor is a bizarre looking fellow with crooked teeth and blotchy skin-everywhere in the film's design, there are indications that the magical world is a truly funky place, whereas everything from the Dursley's rowhouse to Knockturn Alley in Columbus' films looked like clean, Disneyfied movie sets. Cuaron gives us a truly magical world that has grime, funk, and danger. It's evident, too, that we are dealing with a director that has taken care to duplicate the real atmosphere of the UK--many of the exterior shots actually appear to have been filmed outside, and they look appropriately foggy and damp. The requisite Quidditch match takes place in the rain (in Columbus' efforts, the game is played on a perfectly sunny California day--anyone who's been to England knows these happen once or twice a year on average).
Upon his return to Hogwart's, Harry learns that a murderous wizard named Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from Azkaban Prison, the wizarding world's Alcatraz. A squadron of Dementors--black, skeletal soul-sucking wraiths that force their victims to relive their worst nightmares-are dispatched to find the escapee before he can take his revenge on Harry. Black, you see, is thought to have been instrumental in the betrayal and murder of Harry's parents by super-evil Lord Voldemort some years hence. Harry must find Black before Black finds him, while dealing with the usual problems of adolescent wizards everywhere; torment by bullying archrival Draco Malfoy; the suspicions of Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), who may or may not be out to get Potter; a new Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, R.J. Lupin (David Thewlis), who may know more about the situation than he's letting on.
Cuaron's assured touch with young actors really shines here. The trio of Harry and pals Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) seem more believable as adolescents, and there is much less of the mugging for the camera that marred the earlier films. For evidence, look no further than the scene in which Harry is given a ride on a Hippogriff, which, as an entirely FX sequence, could easily have looked phony. It manages to feel exhilarating, however, thanks to both the excellent CG work (some of the best I have seen) and Cuaron's ability to coax the appearance of true joy out of the previously stiff Radcliffe. While Watson has emerged as the best actor of the three, even Grint's insufferable mugging has been toned down. Cuaron does well with the cast of British A-listers assembled for what amounts to cameo roles as the Hogwart's faculty. Emma Thompson scores some laughs as a spacey instructor, and I always want more of Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid, the mostly gentle giant (and Cuaron actually shows him as a giant, where he was just a pretty big guy in the Columbus films) who has been promoted from groundskeeper to teacher. Michael Gambon does a good job filling Burton's shoes as Headmaster Dumbledore, bringing a touch of dark humor to the part (the professor Hagrid is replacing has retired to "spend more time with his remaining limbs," he deadpans). Making the most of their screen time are Thewlis, as the sympathetic yet enigmatic Lupin, and Oldman, who appears through the first two thirds of the film only on creepy animated wanted posters. Cuaron appears to be following Orson Welles' dictum about his character in The Third Man, about which he said (I'm paraphrasing here) that a leading character is one that all the other characters talk about for the first two acts, but who doesn't show up until the third. Black is a little batty after years of the Dementors' attentions, and Cuaron gets the right amount of lunacy out of him to make him believable and not cartoonish.
Cuaron's expert compositions and Michael Sarasin's rich cinematography also star. Each frame is busy with details that enhance, not detract from, the main action. There are some great touches, like the "iris out" transitions between scenes that lend the feel of an older film, or the cut scenes that show the passage of time as the seasons change around the "whomping willow" tree. The redesigned sets, as I noted earlier, are much improved over the Hollywood theme park look of the previous films-fantasy is always enhanced by the appearance of realism. There are repeated visual motifs, notably the school's giant clock, which inform the themes of the film. It's nicely textured filmmaking.
The problems with the film come largely from the story itself. Steve Kloves' adaptation is fine, excellent even (though Potter purists will no doubt be up in arms over some of its omissions), moving along at a good pace that never feels rushed. No, the main problems come from the source material. Though J.K. Rowling has undoubtedly improved as a writer over the course of the series, it seems to me her strengths lie in the inventiveness of her small details, rather than big action or character development. Ironically, where the rather linear plots of the books seem to have been constructed with movie adaptations in mind, a little more intricacy would help the film adaptations. And, as the middle part of a long arc, the film's denouement seems a little "ho-hum" as it serves mainly to set up future storylines. But at least PoA eschews the "Scooby Doo mystery leading to a climactic setpiece with a giant CG monster" formula of the first two.
If you have children, chances are you've already seen this film. If you're wondering about the much-forewarned "darkness" of this film, it's nothing that all but the youngest kids can't handle (though they found the Dementors pretty creepy, the kids in the audience seemed most scared by a chase scene involving a werewolf). And, as a kid brought up on Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey, I think rugrats these days could stand a little more darkness in their entertainments. If it's any indication, I saw the film at a matinee in a theater full of young children--not my ideal movie-watching environment, to be sure--and was amazed to find they were so riveted that the room was practically silent throughout. (Your results may vary.)
4 broomsticks out of a possible 5.
Posted by alangton
at 11:40 AM MDT
