*** (out of ****)
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, and Emma Thompson
Directed by Alfonse Cuaron & written for the screen by Steven Kloves, from the novel by J.K. Rowling
2004
142 min PG
After some initial wariness I’ve finally started to come round to the “Harry Potter” movies. They’re not as clever as everyone says and, more importantly, they’re not quite as clever as they think they are. I have a good friend whose wife is a big fan of the “Potter” books. He’s been reading twenty-volume science-fiction novels for the better part of his life and every time it’s implied that J.K. Rowling invented this technique with “Harry Potter” you can see a dull irritation cloud his eyes. But the “Potter” movies have an endearing and light-hearted spirit of whimsy from which a certain other, recent fantasy trilogy—more overwrought, overlong, and overrated—could have greatly benefited.
I’m sure plenty of parents felt compelled to cover the ears of their children when it was announced that Chris Columbus, who directed the first two “Potter” films (“The Sorcerer’s Stone” and “The Chamber of Secrets”), would be replaced by Mexican director Alfonse Cuaron for “Prisoner of Azkaban.” Columbus is known for family favorites like “Home Alone,” while Cuaron came to fame two years ago with the R—or was it NC17?—rated “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” you know, the one where the guy and the girl and the other guy go on the road trip, and then there’s a bit too much hoochie-coochie.
But, really, he’s the right man for the job, for two reasons. First: wasn’t “Y Tu Mama” about two teenage guys and a woman discovering themselves? Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his two best friends Hermione and Ron (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) are about 13 now. Not only are the boys starting to really notice the girl for the first time, but all three of them are becoming wary of traditional ideas of authority. Cuaron reaches past all the magic and special effects and shows three teens gradually becoming disillusioned by the establishment and realizing that their elders were once as young and as stupid as they are. And maybe their elders are still just as dumb.
To this end, the students at Hogwarts are portrayed with untucked shirts, rolled up sleeves, and loosened neckties, and Harry seems to be suffering from a perpetual bad hair day. He’s grumpy and given to bursts of anger, while Ron and Hermione bicker about their pets an awful lot. The scene where the boys take turns with magic tablets, just for laughs, is framed and acted as if they’re passing around a doobie, and when we first join Harry, he’s hiding under the sheets in his bed, playing with his magic wand. The boyish adventure of the first two films has happily collided with movies like “Thirteen” and “I Capture the Castle.”
The second reason Cuaron is the right director is, well, he’s just a better director than Chris Columbus. Those familiar with “Y Tu Mama” will remember how long many of his individual takes are; dialogue scenes are unbroken by cuts, allowing them to build up momentum and rhythm. “The Prisoner of Azkaban” follows this same pattern, and we feel more of Harry and the kids are being revealed when we don’t cut away to something else, or when the foreground doesn’t have to be cluttered with effects. Cuaron also has some athletic fun flying through mirrors and out windows, but this trickery tends to only bookend dialogue scenes, and is not an end in itself.
But onto the summary: a parallel world exists to our own, run by wizards, witches, and magicians. The training ground for their kind is the school of Hogwarts, and the brightest, and also most troubled student at the school is Harry. An orphan whose parents were killed by an evil wizard, he is perpetually trying to unravel the mystery of their murder, and navigating among professors who know more than they are telling, and who may even be duplicitous. In this episode, the latest piece of the puzzle comes when a murdering maniac (the great Gary Oldman, whose basic mood is anger) escapes from a supposedly-impenetrable magic prison. Ghastly, flying prison guards known as Dementers surround Hogwarts to await his inevitable arrival. Haunted houses, secret passages, werewolves, time travel, griffins, shape-shifting rodentia, and British actors spitting out threats, accusations, and plot points with perfect Shakespearean enunciation ensue.
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