A graceful end to a worthy franchise.
No matter how successful Harry Potter gets, it's somehow impossible to hate him. In the ten years since the eight-part franchise began, the Potter films have raked in global profits on a scale that should, by rights, be annoying in and of itself. And, as a non-reader of the J.K. Rowling books (I'm saving them to read with my daughter when she's old enough) and a non-aficionado of the fantasy genre, I find at least some stretch of every Harry Potter film arcane and a bit dull (usually the parts involving magician-vs.-magician battles--more on that later). Yet the knowledge that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Warner Brothers) will be the last in the series--that Harry Potter, book or movie, is now a story that has been thoroughly and finally told--fills me with a strangely nostalgic sense of loss, like attending a graduation that's also a funeral. (Disclaimer: the preceding sentence was an analogy, not a plot description.)
At the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (Rowling's 759-page final installment had to be broken up into two movies), Lord Voldemort (a digitally disfigured Ralph Fiennes) had just plundered the grave of Harry's beloved teacher, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), for an ultra-valuable wand reputed to bring absolute power to whoever possesses it. Against the advice of the wise old wand-maker Ollivander (John Hurt), Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) set out to kill Voldemort, which they can only do by finding and destroying the four remaining Horcruxes (a series of antique gewgaws in which the Dark Lord has embedded bits of his soul--essentially, wizard-speak for "McGuffins").Maybe this mysteriously ineradicable Potter goodwill comes from my sense that Harry Potter as a phenomenon is so self-evidently a force for good in the world. Children excited about reading! A bunch of books about--this warms the cockles of any education-loving heart--a school! A school in which kids learn to be smart and brave and honest so they can use their magical powers to fight intolerance and evil! The Potter films have managed to explore hopelessly square human truths--about pedagogy and mentorship, loyalty and betrayal, adolescent rivalry and puppy love--without ever seeming goody-two-shoes about it. Some of the installments may be static, others overlong, but there's an essential integrity to the Harry Potter series, stemming no doubt from Rowling's close association with the production process throughout. The films don't feel like cynical cash-cow milking sessions but like chapters in an unfolding story, each one (especially the last four in the series, directed by David Yates) establishing the necessary framework for the next.
In search of these metaphysically charged trinkets, the three Hogwarts alums must break into a subterranean bank vault guarded by a pitiably abused fire-breathing dragon; consult with a tower-dwelling ghost (a memorably eerie Kelly McDonald) about the location of her mother's magic diadem; hunt Voldemort's pet serpent with a tooth from a basilisk skeleton; and--you get the picture. These kids have a magic to-do list a mile long.
But you don't need to grasp the significance of every enchanted artifact in order to submit to the enchantment of this movie. The magic is in the details, like the masterful production design by Stuart Craig, who's been with the series since the beginning and has by now created a densely imagined universe in which, for example, paintings on a wall double as doorways into other dimensions. Similarly, the special effects in Harry Potter aren't just there to look neat; they serve as glimpses into a fully fleshed-out alternate reality with its own history, logic, and laws.
About those magic battles. This has been a problem throughout the series, and is perhaps an inevitable loss in the translation from page to screen: watching two wizards square off via wand is just not much fun. In this movie's climactic scene, as Harry and Voldemort face off amidst the rubble of war-torn Hogwarts, there are not one but two long moments in which we see Harry's powers, represented by a greenish bolt of light, do battle with Voldemort's, a yellowish bolt. It's zigzag vs. zigzag, with no visible strategy or skill--not the most riveting of visuals for an action sequence where the fate of the world hangs in the balance. (Having seen the film at a 2D screening, I can't speak to how the use of 3D adds to or subtracts from zigzag boredom.)
One character whose previous appearances in the films have been tantalizingly brief, Helena Bonham Carter's sexy-Goth-madwoman Bellatrix Lestrange, gets a moment worth remarking in this chapter. Hermione, using a disguise spell, takes on Bellatrix's form to gain access to her bank vault; what we see is Bonham Carter's body with Watson's voice. Bonham Carter playing wicked Bellatrix as (badly) impersonated by upright Hermione is a wonderful piece of actorly sleight-of-hand; I almost believed I was looking at a digitally altered Emma Watson. As the ominous Hogwarts headmaster Severus Snape, Alan Rickman swirls his lines around his mouth as if he were about to spit them into a bucket. He's marvelous, as are all the British character actors--Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis--who pop up to reprise characters from earlier films, sometimes without speaking more than a line or two.Across its whole sweep--which in retrospect now does seem genuinely epic--the Harry Potter series offers one ravishing special effect no digital compositor or makeup artist can match: the opportunity to see the three leads, Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint, age from adorably buck-toothed 11-year-olds into young men and women toward whom the audience now feels an oddly avuncular pride. (This slideshow tracks the kids' growth process from film to film.) I don't know if any of these actors will be able to escape the long shadow of Harry Potter--though the gimlet-eyed Watson strikes me as the most likely to go on to a long and varied career--but even if the Harry Potter series is all they do, they will have created an impressive and lasting body of work. I'll probably revisit the Potter films after reading the books with my child one day, and see things in them I can't now. It's always hard to predict how a work of art will age over time, but I have the feeling that, like its three young leads, the Harry Potter series will turn out just fine.
FILM REVIEW
Critick’s Pick: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
COURTESY PHOTO
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Dir. David Yates; writ. Steve Kloves; feat. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon. (PG-13)
Whether Harry Potter’s increased maturity over the last decade is most evident in the fearlessness he summons within himself in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 or the amount of hair he displays beneath his arms, there is no denying that the famously spectacled boy-wizard audiences first met in 2001 has become a full-fledged man.
With his rite of passage comes the removal of all childish things from this final installment of the fantasy film series adapted from the ambitious mind of best-selling author J.K. Rowling. In Deathly Hallows: Part 2, there is no time to play a skillful game of Quidditch, or transform students into ferrets, or cast ridiculous spells on black widow spiders. Actually, there isn’t much time for any humor at all, and for good reason. When Harry Potter (Radcliffe) steps up to the edge of a looming forest in the third act of the film and declares that he is ready to die, it’s not just some melodramatic statement he makes before his inevitable face-off with Lord Voldemort (Fiennes). He actually sounds like he believes it. Depending on how emotionally invested you have become in these characters over the last decade will determine just how disheartening it would be to see Harry fall short of his calling.
Returning for his fourth consecutive Harry Potter film, director David Yates embraces the seriousness of the narrative and the consequences of Rowling’s uncompromising mythology. In Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry, Hermione (Watson), and Ron (Grint) continue their scavenger hunt for the remaining Horcruxes, which they have to destroy in order to defeat the Dark Lord. With Hogwarts under the prison-like rules of new headmaster Severus Snape (Rickman), the trio must infiltrate the school to seek out the last object and then defend the castle alongside their professors and fellow classmates as Voldemort flings the Elder Wand around without remorse.
While the catalog of Harry Potter films include both highs and lows (Alfonso Cuarón’s fascinating Prisoner of Azkabanis still unsurpassed), both halves of Deathly Hallows are easily two of the most satisfying entries in the entire epic. InPart 2, the danger is seething as both sides battle between extravagant set pieces and eye-catching special effects, unnecessary 3D notwithstanding. The final chapter will be a bittersweet farewell for the most devoted Potter fans, but the franchise will forever be remembered for its distinct creativity, imagination, and darkly enchanting vision
FILM REVIEW 2
The final episode in this eight-part epoch-defining fantasy series about a bespectacled boy wizard and his troublesome wand was always going to be the best of the lot because of a simple fact — it ends.
No, I'm not one of those cynical muggles who missed the Harry Potter express when it left the station a decade ago and now regards anyone who knows the difference between a Horcrux and a Howler or can distinguish Hagrid from Helga Hufflepuff as unfortunate members of a mind-altering cult.
Indeed, the films have been getting progressively stronger since the lumbering Chris Columbus-controlled first two episodes, with succeeding directors Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates each finding a way of imposing their own cinematic personality without betraying the source material.
But even the best of those adaptations — the darkly poetic Prisoner of Azkaban from Mexican master Cuaron — suffered because it was deprived of the primary weapon in any storyteller's arsenal — a climax. How can you tell a decent yarn without all the mysteries being resolved, the hero finally facing his nemesis and the audience lifted to an emotional high and enjoying a hard-earned catharsis?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the second half of the wisely bifurcated final chapter, does not quite deliver the knockout punch for which millions of fans are desperately hoping.
There are a few too many revelations, plot twists and lesser confrontations for the apocalyptic smackdown between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort to go out in a manner deserving of a series that has held the culture in its thrall through seven previous films.
While the finale falls short of greatness (always difficult when shackled to a sprawling literary narrative), Yates and writer Steve Kloves have done a fine job of weaving all the various narrative threads, bringing back characters audiences have come to love without it seeming like a TV series send-off and maintaining the gravitas which has distinguished Harry Potter from similar youth-oriented fantasies.
Indeed, being the last in a series with a captive global audience allows Yates and Kloves to cast aside all demands to explain the story to latecomers. Hitting the ground running, part two picks up with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) rushing to find and destroy the Horcruxes that are the key to vanquishing Harry's mortal enemy Lord Voldemort, who has designs on the entire wizard world.
The quest takes the intrepid trio into the wizarding bank with Hermione disguised as Bellatrix Lestrange and Ron wearing a beard, a funny, thrilling and frightening sequence which recalls Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones movies and a reminder of how far the series and its heroes have travelled since little smooth-cheeked Harry fought his first quidditch battle.
Harry and his loyal companions eventually make it back to Hogwarts but their old school is shockingly transformed. The deceased Dumbledore is replaced by his apparent killer Severus Snape (a movie-stealing Alan Rickman). Death Eaters and Dementors stroll the corridors where young wizards once frolicked and, outside, the forces of darkness, led by Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes in fine form), are preparing to attack and kill everyone unless they give up Harry Potter.
This extended battle sequence never quite achieves the sword-clashing, monster-mashing majesty of Lord of the Rings because there is only so much you can do with wands shooting out beams of light. But Yates and designer Stuart Craig have done a wondrous job in rendering Hogwarts under siege, seamlessly melding actual sets with CGI to create a parallel universe which evokes London during the Blitz.
The most stirring and memorable sequence in Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is Harry's shocking discovery of the truth about how his parents were killed, how he became a target of Voldemort and the overwhelming sacrifice he must make if he is to defeat the Dark Lord. This opens out to a moving reflection on death and dying which further elevates a series justly celebrated for dealing with tough life issues for teens.
It is also where the diminutive Radcliffe comes into his own as an actor. He has always seemed like a bit of a dwarf against the rest of the cast — not as attractive as his young co-stars and not nearly as talented as the amazing line-up of British acting royalty, who in this last instalment bring a gratifying emotional texture to parts which often merely demanded character quirks.
Radcliffe transforms from boy to man, matching his character to maturity and giving a fully-adult performance that provides the series with its heart and soul. He has taken his time but that's part of the long, difficult road to adulthood that is J.K. Rowling's true theme.
