A Pleasure to Read, A Delight To See

The book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,â€� was criticized in some quarters for being too long, too slow and for straying off on one too many side plots that distracted from Harry’s quest to vanquish the villainous Voldemort.

   I disagreed with all those objections. I felt that J.K. Rowling had earned the right to take her time in bringing this brilliantly plotted saga to its conclusion, and that the story needed every one of its nearly 800 pages to flesh out her mythic and spiritual themes and bring all the characters and plotlines to a satisfying end.

   The filmmakers have divided the book in half, remarkably finding a perfectly appropriate breaking point. Though it necessarily leaves the audience hanging, it’s satisfying in itself, richly and deeply fleshing out the loneliness, fear and determination that Harry, Hermione and Ron experience as they leave the no-longer-safe environs of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

   With bounty hunters called snatchers close behind, they wander through wilderness and big city on a mapless quest to unravel the clues left for them by Professor Dumbledore in his will, clues that will lead them to the secret hiding places of the divided pieces of Voldemort’s broken soul.

   Screenwriter Steve Kloves managed to do full justice to the complex plot, deleting little and adding less. One new scene expressing the tenderness between just-friends Harry and Hermione is lovely: Sensing her despair is even greater than his, Harry dances with her, cheering both of them up, if only for a fleeting moment.

   The film is stronger in its quiet moments than in its noisy chases.

   There are plenty of death eaters and dementors coursing around at intervals, but those moments feel fairly routine. But it’s when Hermione makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect her parents, or when Harry returns to the village of his birth, and his parents’ death, that the tears flow or the flesh crawls.  Even when the characters are barely moving, the film never loses its momentum.

   The troupe of British acting greats (Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, and others) mostly take a back seat.

   A few new faces (Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans) join the company and have their moments, but the central trio has grown up and now all three have the acting chops to fully carry the film. Emma Watson, in particular, has shed some of the mannerisms that marred her younger performances, and now uses stillness and subtlety to convey more emotion than the waggling eyebrows of yore. 

   In fact she’s more the heart and soul of this film than even Harry.

   Presumably he’ll come into his own in the final installment, when emotional encounters with the people he loves, and fears, will be central to the climax of the story, and the meaning of the mysterious words, “I open at the closeâ€� is revealed.

   The movie has no equivalent of the “previously on…â€� explication device. It just dives right in. If you haven’t seen or read the previous six installments you’ll be hopelessly lost and it’s hard to imagine how you’ll ever catch up. Even if you are familiar with the series, you might want to do a quick review so you can keep track of characters like Scrimgeour, Mundungus and Yaxley, or the difference between horcruxes and hallows.

   Near the end, a surprising and beautiful animation sequence sets up the dilemma that Harry will face in Deathly Hallows Part II. The last film is seven months away — just long enough to reread all the books, and rewatch all the films before a remarkable, decade-long episode in literature and culture finally draws to an end.

   “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsâ€� is rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action and violence and frightening images. It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton and throughout the Tri-state region.

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