Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows Part 1 finds the young wizards Harry, Ron and Hermione, having
dropped out of Hogwarts, in the worst crisis of their young lives, faced with
tracking down the evil one, Voldermort, and putting their six years of
witchcraft studies to its most ferocious test. As even the least informed
Potter addict knows all too well Part 1 is at best a delicious tease, an
obligatory anti-climax bit of black magic foreplay before next summer’s series
climaxing showdown. That said the filmmakers: director David Yates,
screenwriter Steve Kloves, director of photography Eduardo Serra and company
have made this one, the seventh and shortest of the series, feel in no way a
cheat.
One of the greatest thrills of this
Potter film decade – with J. K. Rowling’s seductive “kid’s story” becoming both
a companion and welcome distraction for even its growing adult audience to our
age of terror – has been to watch the three Potter principals: Daniel Radcliffe,
Rupert Grint and Emma Watson go from wide-eyed newbies in a great movie school,
tutored by perhaps the finest theatre trained adult supporting cast ever
assembled, to seasoned pros able to steal the franchise back from their
teachers. An illustration comes in a great fight scene between Harry and Ron.
Tension has been building between the boy wizard and his once dopey sidekick
for a time, but now cold, lost and frustrated in their efforts to best the
terrible powers aligned against them, the two old friends finally snap, and
duke it out, with words, of course. Harry kicks off the row with a question
which releases all Ron’s pent up anger.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, according to you,
anyway.”
“Spit it out.”
“I’ll spit it out. But don’t expect
me to be grateful because there’s another damn thing we’ve got to find!”
“I thought you knew what you signed
up for.”
“Yeah, I thought I did, too.”
“Did you think we were going to be
staying in five star hotels? Find a Horcrux every other day? Did you
think you’d be back to Mummy by Christmas?”
“I thought Dumbledore would have
told you something worthwhile; I thought you had a plan!”
“I told you everything Dumbledore
told me and in case you haven’t noticed we’ve found a Horcrux already.”
“Yeah, and were about as close to
getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them, aren’t we?”
“Do you know why I listen to that
radio every night? So I don’t hear Ginny’s name...”
“You think I don’t know how this feels?”
“No, you don’t know how it feels. Your
parents are dead. You have no family!”
Beyond its verbal firepower,
this installment features some of the starkest and wittiest allusions by the
filmmakers and Rowling to other great British writers who have opined against
the darkest forces of the modern world, such as George Orwell. Much of the
imagery and action surrounding Voldemont and his minions’ take over of the
Ministry of Magic has a distinctly Orwellian feel. Harry and his friends are
constantly on the run from wizardry’s Big Brother – some of the film’s juiciest
moments come from brilliant dodges by the good guys: such as the feat of
creating a small armada of Harry look-a-likes to throw Voldermort and his
Fascist like army, The Death Eaters, off their trail on route to getting Harry
to a safe house.
For the first time in the
seven picture run I find myself supplementing my enjoyment of the series with
large doses of Rowling’s final volume: for the non-hardcore fan it is often
hard to keep up without her helpful reminders, such as just what is a Horcrux
and how does one kill one.
One tiny quibble: I would have loved
a full scene of Harry’s final parting from his annoying Muggles family – it
would have been especially delicious to have another verbal duel between Radcliffe
and Harry’s Muggle uncle, Vernon Dunsley, Richard Griffiths, after the two
actors’ lovely theatre holiday in the very adult Equus.
Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows Part 1 is all and all the sweetest of teases – I haven’t
enjoyed the series so much since Rowling’s giddy revelation that Harry’s
longtime mentor Dumbledore was gay.