The Plaid Adder
plaidder@mindspring.com
It's been so long since I read Azkaban that the film still had a certain element of suspense for me. I couldn't generally see everything coming, but once something started happening, I went, "Oh, yeah, I remember this." Even so, Azkaban was much more engaging, emotional, and, yes, scary than the other two ever got. Partly that has to do with the material; the Harry Potter series gets darker as the children get older and Azkaban is where Rowling really starts to get into Harry's extremely dark backstory and its continuing psychological effect on him. Plotwise and in terms of characterization, Azkaban is a much stronger book than Chamber of Secrets, so in a sense Cuaron just got lucky.
However, this film showed significant evidence of someone new--and far more clueful--at the helm. For one thing, the adaptation is better. Instead of trying to get 5% of absolutely everything into the story line, they have streamlined the plot to focus on the development of the three main characters and their interactions with the new arrivals. Most of the plot deals with Harry's attempt to deal with his parents' death and his own status as You-Know-Who's future nemesis. For that reason a fair amount of time is spent on Harry's relationship with Professor Lupin, well played by David Thewlis, and on the deepening bonds between Harry and Ron and Hermione. There is very little Quidditch (yay!) and unfortunately very little of Professor MacGonigle. Emma Thompson's Professor Trelawny is screamingly funny (to us, anyway) and intensely bizarre, but her part has been stripped down to the bare essentials necessary to make the rest of the plot work.
The result is that you finally get to spend enough time with the main characters that they really start to mean something to you. Cuaron also has a better feel for the visuals, and is able to use them to do some of the storytelling. For instance, the "time turner" subplot is delayed until the very end of the film, but it's constantly reinforced by the visual focus on Hogwarts's many interesting clocks. It's been a while, but I think that this film is using different exterior locations than the other two did; the interior of Hogwarts looks about the same but the landscape looks scruffier, darker, and closer to real. The dementors are terrifying, partly because Cuaron does such a good job of showing their effect on the environment; like the characters, we feel the chill before we actually see the dementors. By the time Sirius Black finally shows up, we are willing to buy the lighting-fast shifts in allegiance that follow, and the final denouement is imbued with a real sense of danger--not just because of the physical risks that all the characters are running, but because there is so much on the line emotionally too.
The special effects are better too, because they're not overwhelming the rest of the film. Apart from Buckbeak, who is remarkably lifelike for a CGI creature, the Dementors, and the Patronus charm, probably the most important special effect is the Marauders' Map, which Cuaron has a lot of fun with in the closing credits. Apart from that, the film finds its magic in the weird and often sinister beauty of the Hogwarts landscape.
The child actors are now giving better performances; the adults, as usual, are excellent. Michael Gambon is a different kind of Dumbledore; less Santa Claus and more wizard. It's bizarre to me watching him because I've seen him as Hamm in Endgame and as Father Jack in Dancing at Lughnasa; that voice is unmistakeable, no matter how much fake beardage you drape him in. Oldman's Sirius Black doesn't get very much screen time, but he does a good job of managing the transition from crazed escaped killer to father figure, and I look forward to seeing him again in installment IV. His friendship with Lupin is touchingly and convincingly conveyed in what's basically just one scene (Sirius/Remus slashers, start your engines). Even Hermione's hair is more under control.
So, all in all, it' a grand night out, and it bodes well for future Harry Potter movies. I hope this one makes more money than the other two combined.
C ya, The Plaid Adder C ya,
The Plaid Adder
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