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

Friday, July 3, 2015

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005, PG-13)

The first PG-13 film in the franchise – the story is growing up alongside the characters.  The dangers are more severe, the stakes are higher, and on the lighter side, the interpersonal stuff is more adolescent.  Overall, this is one of the more consistent in the series; though not as good as my favorites, it’s fairly even and, in my opinion, doesn’t have many major issues.  (If anyone needs the disclaimer, there’s one major spoiler for this movie that impacts the rest of the series.)

Despite unrest in the wizarding world, Harry isn’t too focused on Voldemort or his followers, the Death Eaters, for much of his fourth year at Hogwarts.  Rather, the big attraction is the Triwizard Tournament, an international magic competition pitting Hogwarts against two other European schools of wizardry.  The foreign visitors turn Hogwarts upside down; everyone is invested in the tournament, interschool rivalry, and maybe a little canoodling.  Each school is supposed to have a single champion over 17 years old, but of course Harry gets in on the action – for reasons unknown, someone enters him into the competition, setting him up as an unprecedented fourth champion and putting him in serious jeopardy over the course of the dangerous tournament.

This was an enjoyable book for me and, for the most part, the movie captures that.  Director Mike Newell captures a lot of fine humor, understanding that these kids are wizards/witches who can do magic, but they’re also teenagers with ordinary teenage problems.  The romance stuff manages to be fun without taking over, and the Triwizard challenges are well-executed.  There’s a lot of great student interaction, not just among the trio, but throughout the school and its visitors; it really makes Hogwarts feel like an actual school, not just a fantastical backdrop for the story.  While plenty is cut for time, there’s not much that feels critically absent.

Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore continues to top the quibbles list.  Additionally, while a lot of the humor is great, I find a few bits too over-the-top – much of Filch’s characterization comes to mind.  I can’t fault the film for the next point, since it’s rooted in the book, but I also don’t like that the French school is filled with frosty babes and the eastern Europeans are big, brutish, and suspect.  For a story that opens up the greater wizarding world outside the U.K., the foreigners are characterized pretty lazily.  Similarly, the film does a disservice to Viktor Krum, who’s mainly framed as a hunky meathead.  I imagine it’s partly time constraints and partly to serve the Ron/Hermione ship, but as someone who likes Krum and his relationship with Hermione, it’s disappointing (and the constant potshots about the brainless lunk of a sports star are boring.)

Finally:  new cast member time!  This film has Brendan Gleeson in a great turn as the irascible MadEye Moody, a hilarious Miranda Richardson (Queenie!) as gossip-mongering reporter Rita Skeeter, and a pre-Who David Tennant in a brief role (plus a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory.)  The real draw, though, is Ralph Fiennes in his stellar performance as the resurrected Voldemort.  He looks haunted and half-formed, his intensity radiates off the screen, and whether he’s eerily hushed or full-on seething, you can’t take your eyes off him.  Just a sublime job, and the graveyard scene is the highlight of an already-pretty-fine film.

Warnings

Some definitely frightening sequences, magical violence (including torture,) and mild swearing.

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