Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010, PG-13)

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

Magical violence (including a scene of torture – now that I’m writing it all down, I’m noticing that there really is a lot of torture in these books,) frightening images, thematic elements, and brief sexual content.