I’d
been majorly dubious about splitting the last Harry Potter book into two movies, but they honestly turned out to
be, in my opinion, two of the series’ best.
While I tired of the interminable camping scenes in the book, the film’s
deft handling of the story makes this movie feel like anything but filler. (Spoilers for the basic direction of The Deathly Hallows.)
Gone is
the familiar Hogwarts backdrop. Harry
has given up school in order to track down Horcruxes, the magical MacGuffins of
evil that, once collected and destroyed, will finally allow Voldemort to be
defeated. Ron and Hermione, being Ron
and Hermione, of course aren’t about to let Harry go it alone, and so they join
him on his quest. As they struggle with
their baffling mission, try to elude the nefarious wizards and witches who are
after them, and battle the dark magic that seeks to influence them, they inch
ever closer to the final battle to come.
This is
just a fantastic movie. The somewhat
aimless feel of this section of the book, surprisingly, is translated really
well onscreen. There’s still the sense
of the trio being rudderless, unsure of where to go or what to do, resentments
festering amid their confusion and fear, but I don’t feel restless like I did
slogging through it on the page. The
script is tight, there’s a good balance of external threats and internal
conflict, and our heroes’ waning hopes are captured perfectly. The bigger sustained sequences are all well
done, from the Ministry of Magic infiltration to the encounter with the Death
Eaters, and the animation during the Tale of the Three Brothers is
unbelievable.
The “darkness”
seems forced at times in The Half-Blood Prince, but it feels totally earned here.
The script, the direction, the acting, the music – everything works in
conjunction to convey the feeling of these bleak days in the wizarding
world. There are still flashes of humor
here and there (I like some of the jokes and sight gags with Hermione’s
bigger-on-the-inside handbag,) and moments of warmth keep the austerity from
getting too oppressive (there are some lovely friendship touches within the
trio,) but there’s an obvious pall seeping into every corner of the story. Things are clearly coming to a head, and it’s
all gonna go down in the final movie.
It
occurs to me that I never mentioned Helena Bonham Carter as the unhinged Death
Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, so I’ll give her kudos now. Additionally, we get a little of the fabulous
Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour, along with Rhys Ifans (he was the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, but I’ll always
know him best as Puff in Human Nature,)
who’s very effective in his brief scenes as Xenophilius Lovegood. Also, she has maybe two lines, so it barely
counts as a role, but Michelle Fairley, a.k.a. Catelyn Stark, appears as
Hermione’s mom. Really, though, while
the adults are as sublime as always, this is definitely the trio’s movie. All three of them are stellar – Daniel Radcliffe
meets the material head-on, Rupert Grint has some great drama to work with, and
Emma Watson feels so genuine. Terrific
work all around.
Warnings
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