War is hell

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2011 (5559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this final chapter of the Harry Potter saga, the Great Hall of Hogwarts School, with its transparent ceiling and its floating candles, will end up looking like a bomb hit it. The Quidditch field, where the school houses Gryffindor and Slytherin used to settle their mutual hostility on a field of sportsmanship, is in flames, its towers burning and toppling.

Sportsmanship be damned. This is war.

It is potentially distressing to see the innocent fantasy trappings of the first movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, suffering such devastation in this film.

But then again, one could expect nothing less. The genius of the films, and the J.K. Rowling books that inspired them, is that they mature in syncopation with the characters, the actors, and the bulk of their audience, who were 10 years younger when the first movie was released in the autumn of 2001.

Director David Yates, who has helmed the last four Harry Potter films, seems to understand this. Beneath the magical trappings, he invests this closing chapter with a fitting dramatic gravitas, suggesting that the innocence of the series died right with the childlike elf Dobby at the conclusion of the last film.

It is evident in the film’s first few minutes, when Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) interviews Voldemort’s former prisoners Ollivander (John Hurt) and the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis), to determine his next move. There is no spectacle, but the drama is as intense as a police grilling in a Sidney Lumet movie, a demonstration, too, that young actors Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have grown into serious thespians.

The trio’s next move is a thrilling heist-like sequence at Gringotts Bank, where they are obliged to break into the vault of Voldemort’s evil moll Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), with Hermione disguising herself as Bellatrix to uncover yet another Horcrux, a magical object containing a piece of Voldemort’s soul. (Bonham Carter — who is pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix — is wonderful here.)

But the heist, reckless as it is, tips Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) to the fact that Potter is hunting Horcruxes and both parties converge on Hogwarts for a final confrontation.

Hermione thinks they should have a plan. “When have any of our plans actually worked?” Harry responds in the movie’s most comic moment. “We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose.”

It does indeed, and one of the first casualties is back story. Fans of the book may be dismayed by the film’s necessary shorthand when it comes to subplots. Dumbledore’s family history, for example, painstakingly recounted in the novel, is given short shrift.

But Yates necessarily jettisons that because there is a more important back story to be told, involving another Hogwarts teacher who is more than he seems.

In any case, this wrap-up to the series is rich in plot, character and subtext. Behind the upfront story of war and sacrifice is a provocative undercurrent of maternal themes encompassing the Potter, Weasley, and Malfoy clans.

Actors such as Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane show up to deliver scant lines of dialogue, but contribute to the rich Potter tapestry along with franchise newcomers Ciaran Hinds and Kelly Macdonald as, respectively, Aberforth Dumbledore and Ravenclaw’s house ghost, the Gray Lady.

The fact that the cream of British actors shows up to perform in what amounts to bit parts should tell you something: Harry Potter is as important and rich a piece of modern myth-making as was ever created in Britain, including everything from Lord of the Rings to James Bond. And this final film sends Harry off in style.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

 

Movie Review

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Ralph Fiennes
PG
130 minutes
4 1/2 out of five stars

 

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

 

It’s wonderful. Epic and heartbreaking and just as grand as it needs to be.

— Elizabeth Wietzman, New York Daily News

 

With shifting loyalties, unlikely heroes, truths revealed and a little help from friends, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 winds the series up in a most satisfying fashion.

— Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

 

In the end the thing works like, well, magic…

— Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

 

Exciting, gripping and touching, the action-packed final instalment sees this tremendously successful franchise end on a high.

— Cara Nash, Filmink

 

When the film finally ends, when those last few images play out, it is more than satisfying. It is triumphant.

— Drew McWeeny, Hitfix

 

The film recognizes, with a maturity and sincerity that have become the franchise’s hallmarks, that love and loyalty are the most vital, powerful and real in times of true darkness.

— Nick Schager, L.A. Weekly

 

Everything a summer blockbuster should be but rarely is — a whip-smart, slam-bang piece of entertainment where we deeply care about the fate of the central characters (and many subsidiary ones who return for their last bows).

— Lou Lumenick, New York Post

 

The thrilling conclusion to a phenomenal cinematic story 10 years in the telling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is proof that authentic movie excitement is its own form of magic.

— Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

 

While it’s unfolding, this is just terrific fun: eye-scorching, ear-battering, heart-pounding cinema of pure spectacle.

— Tom Huddleston, Time Out London

 

— Compiled by Shane Minkin

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