There’s a routine to the “Potter” films, in which the long, long first act is spent on build-up, on guns put on mantles but never fired, and on members of the enormous British supporting cast alluding to things from Harry’s past which are too horrible to speak of openly. There are some tedious bits in which Harry’s aunt, uncle, and school enemies hate him feverishly without much motivation, and, in much the same that movie cops are always one step away from losing their badges or “riding a desk,” Harry is always a hair’s breadth away from expulsion. As in the previous films, characters introduced as trustworthy end up hiding something, and the initial villain is a red herring. Columbus, in his reverence of the books, plays all this straight, while Cuaron realizes the Encyclopedia Brown/Nancy Drew silliness of it all and introduces a little gentle mocking and exaggeration. There are several instances of “I bet that made more sense in the book,” and if someone like Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton was at the helm, the exaggeration level would be so high that the absence of sense would turn into its own kind of sense. That would be cool.
Cuaron also introduces ethnic minorities to Hogwarts, creating the impression that we are in modern England, full of blacks, Indians, and Pakistanis, instead of 1935. This will no doubt allow the series, which has always availed itself of Britain’s finest actors, to eventually include the two sisters from “Bend It Like Beckham” as upperclassmen who say “bugger” a lot while smoking cigarettes behind the castle. “Prisoner of Azkaban’s” latest additions include a bug-eyed and scenery-munching performance by Emma Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) as a daffy teacher of divination. Her ex-husband Kenneth Branagh was a charlatan in the previous film; I guess being a big phony is always alluring for classically trained thespians.
In my limited exposure to the outside world, I have detected none of the criticisms that the previous films and books accrued from certain Christian groups claiming that children shouldn’t be watching and reading about black magic. Magic in the “Potter” universe is treated like a tool, to be learned and mastered like any other skill, not involving prayer or meditation. Why “Potter’s” non-religious magic would come under fire while The Force, which does actually ring of religion, goes unnoticed, is beyond me. Wiccans, i.e. genuine practitioners of witchcraft, who can easily explain the origin of the flying broomstick misconception, have much more right to be offended. But because “Harry Potter” is intended for mass, worldwide consumption, no one in it has a particular religion. It should be noted that Harry’s friend Ron is picked on by English kids, has red hair, and comes from a big, generous family of innumerable siblings. If that isn’t movie code for an Irish Catholic, I don’t know what is.
But I digress. This is a fun, beautifully made film, with a great supporting cast and the same wonderful production values as its two predecessors. The result is characters we care about in exciting, intriguing situations, filled with color and brilliance. As children, we may not have been betrayed as badly as Harry and his friends sometimes are, but we remember the sting of parents turning out to be fallible and adults siding with the rules instead of with us, and we remember giving up those illusions. We may not believe in magic or in griffins, but the capital-T Truth Cuaron has brought to the series is sound. What more do you want from a summer movie?
Finished June 5th, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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