Harry Potter Graduates
Directed by David Yates; starring Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Gint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman…
Critics of books or movies tend to focus on plot; this is what “the story” is about, after all. And yet, the Harry Potter series stands as evidence of how unimportant plot really is to narrative art. Because the plotting of these incredibly successful books is just awful). The formula, set in the first book, is that each volume starts with Harry in the real world, followed by a magical journey to Hogwarts where we will follow him through the school year. Early in the new term he discovers some deadly threat to the Wizard world — and then promptly does nothing about it for increasingly lame reasons. There are still months and months to fill with peripheral action, after all, before graduation and the end of the school year/book.
And yet, the Potter series still works as stories because JK Rowling is so skilled at the other elements of narrative: especially setting and character. She creates a marvellously real, if fantastical, world of wizards and magic that is full of terrific, incidental detail (right down to the notices on the school bulletin boards). And all the adventures are rooted in a great set of characters. Through the seven books you see Harry wrestling with issues of identity (he’s an orphan whose closest living tie seems to be to the evil Voldemort) as he grows from child to awkward adolescent (as presently) to a fully realized adult. His friendship with the studious Hermione and the gawky Ron is not just terrific fun but provides a moral counterpoint to the evil characters who are incapable of such genuine loyalty and affection.
And the movies — thanks to a terrific cast, a strong focus on the characters, and a budget to do the stories justice — have succeeded beyond expectation. Often the films have improved upon the source material thanks to the discipline necessary to squeeze the action into a couple of hours (or less) running time. A two-hour movie is equivalent to a short novel or novella, not the sprawling monsters the later Harry Potters have become, and the movies have benefited from the pruning.
That said, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the movie) finally seems to have been overwhelmed by the task of cutting 652 pages into a (still too long) two and a half hours. Skipping too quickly over too many incidents the movie feels rushed despite its length. Visits to a magic joke shop and the Weasley’s home just distract from the main story, which is about Harry helping Dumbledore collect bottled memories of Voldemort’s past as they search for a weakness in their foe. But here the movie cuts too much, omitting many of the memories described in the book. The result, plot-wise, is as sprawling and unfocused in its own way as the book.
Even more importantly, the setting and characters also lack the brilliance of the previous films. Half-Blood Prince is a sombre story as the wizard world prepares for its final showdown with Voldemort, but I wonder if the film had to be quite this dark and dreary. The trip to Hogwarts — usually a joyous occasion — is a brown journey through a burnt Autumn countryside, and the place itself is in serious need of new lightbulbs And the only real action sequence has Harry and Dumbledore flying alone to a remote cave to retrieve a Voldemort relic. This leaves the companionable team of Harry, Ron, and Hermione — who provide so much of the fun in the previous films — little to do but be angsty teens. Their dialogue consists of strangled utterances, Hermione (for some unfathomable reason) is mooning over Ron (who is basking in the attentions of a Quidditch groupy), and Harry is brooding about being “the chosen one.”
As the penultimate entry in the series, the purpose of Half-Blood Prince’s is to act as The Empire Strikes Back to the Deathly Hallows’ Return of the Jedi. So, even if it isn’t a strong outing in its own right, we can take heart that the final scene sets up a solid quest for the two-part finale still to come. After this misfire, let’s hope our heroes get the conclusion they deserve.
WOBBLY THUMB
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