"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011, PG-13)

If there were ever a pair of films made to advocate splitting adaptations of a book in half, it’s probably The Deathly Hallows.  I’ve already sung the praises of part 1, and part 2 is every bit as excellent.  Exciting, emotional, engrossing, and invigorating, this movie brings the franchise to a fitting close (and, for me, it does so even better than the book.)

Considering how little major plot remains, the film fills out surprisingly well.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s quest to find and destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes takes them back to Hogwarts.  As they race to complete their mission, the school becomes the backdrop for the final stand against Voldemort and his followers.  Harry is horrified to see friends fighting and dying for what he feels is his battle, and in the end, it of course comes down to the Dark Lord and the Boy Who Lived, seeing which will carry the day.

Much like part 1 makes the long camping/trekking sequences impressively watchable, this film does wonderfully with what’s mainly a big fantasy battle.  Now, I’m all for a good fantasy battle, but as The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies shows, you can’t base an entire film around it.  It just gets to be too much, and the whole thing devolves into sameness.  Then, no matter how cool or well-performed the fighting is, you kind of resent it for giving you such a surfeit.  The trick with The Deathly Hallows:  Part 2, I think, is that there’s still quite a bit of story woven in the same time.  As the battle rages around the castle, Harry and his friends are still chasing Horcruxes, solving mysteries, and discovering hidden truths about themselves.  This provides a lot of variance in the flow of the story, and even if some of these sequences are action-heavy (like the confrontation in the Room of Requirement,) it’s a different sort of action to the fight going on outside.  In this way, the big fight never flags or feels repetitive.

The action also remains grounded in the characters.  There are some gorgeous friendship moments among the trio, lots of supporting characters get a chance to shine (I like Luna giving Harry what for, and I love Neville Longbottom his inner badass while still being so completely Neville,) and Harry’s own journey is gripping to the end.  And emotional – wow!  I mentioned it above, but it’s true.  In the last hour, this movie wrecks me.  The whole Prince’s Tale sequence is beautifully, flawlessly executed, and the Resurrection Stone scene is sublime.  Everyone’s acting is just crazy on-point, and the direction is fantastic.  Knockout, all the way.

A few more fine faces in British acting I should mention.  A nigh-unrecognizable Ciarán Hinds (who I’ll always know best as Capt. Wentworth from the Amanda Root version of Persuasion) turns in a nice performance as Aberforth Dumbledore, and the terrific Kelly Macdonald (State of Play alum!) is great in her scene as the Grey Lady.

(As much as I love the movie, though, the epilogue is still ridiculous.  That treacle didn’t work for me in the book, and the only reason it’s any better here is because there’s less of it.  Ayiyi.)

Warnings

Fantasy violence, frightening images, and thematic elements.

No comments:

Post a Comment