Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Let's make a deal - the Elder Wand for your nose

Grade: B +

Director: David Yates

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, and Helena Bonham Carter

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 2 hr. 10 min.

As the action-filled climax to the acclaimed fantasy series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 dispenses with much additional character development or insight, save for Harry’s revelatory gaze through a prism formed from the tears of Severus Snape (Alan Rickman). Instead, the film draws upon a decade of Potter iconography to fashion a nostalgic quietus – with familiar creatures and supporting characters, both living and dead, given one last turn in the spotlight – en route to the fated Ragnarok between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).

It is a wistfulness bound to be shared by the British film industry, which the “Harry Potter” franchise has almost singlehandedly buttressed since 2001. Indeed, the entire “Potter” saga has always been best interpreted from a British standpoint. “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is no exception, with the assault on Hogwarts by Voldemort and his dark army especially evocative for a country that over the last 70 years has suffered The Blitz, decades of IRA terrorism and the 7/7 London Underground bombings. An image of students and faulty tending to the dead and injured amidst the rubble of Hogwarts is eerily, perhaps purposefully reminiscent of the aftermath of Luftwaffe air raids during World War II.

Formerly a savior in waiting, Harry Potter is in full Messianic bloom. Instead of a conquering king, however, Harry discovers that his true destiny is to die so that the world might live. He’s even given his own Garden of Gethsemane moment, during which he communes with the heavenly apparition of his father, mother and others.

As BFFs Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) again help Harry try to vanquish Voldemort, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 carries an enjoyable but inevitable air. Director David Yates, whose four Potter films saved the series from a critical standpoint, dutifully fills in the narrative blanks amid what amounts to a special effects extravaganza.

The singular saving grace comes late in the film at the end of a chat between Harry and Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) inside an ethereal incarnation of King’s Cross railway station. “Is this real, or has this been happening inside my head?,” asks Harry. “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry,” answers the undead headmaster. “But, that doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

The exchange – slightly reworded from J.K. Rowling’s prose – lands like a load of bricks. Even the cursory suggestion that events occurring beyond – and perhaps even before – this scene might be figments of Harry’s imagination is itself a ruse.

In truth, Dumbledore’s response is directed at the viewer, underscoring the porous line between fiction and individualized reality as insightfully as François Ozon’s Swimming Pool or anything written by Charlie Kaufman. Moreover, it is an instance of utter symbiosis between art and audience, both an acknowledgement and validation of the Potter faithful that have queued up to buy the books and donned capes and makeshift wands to watch the movies.

Capped by a sunbathed, symbolic coda, the enduring moral of the Harry Potter series is the timeliness of art. Nineteen years hence, Harry, Ron and Hermione won’t be the ones introducing their grade school children to the magical wonders of Hogwarts; it’ll be the now-teenage fans who grew up with them.

Neil Morris

Originally published at www.indyweek.com: http://goo.gl/XCDxV

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Harry's not feeling quite himself today

Grade: B +

Director: David Yates

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Brendan Gleeson, and Imelda Staunton

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 2 hours, 26 minutes

In a film rife with depictions of torture and genocide, the most haunting scene in the decidedly dark but tremendous Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (hereinafter HPDH1) is a wordless, isolated moment during its opening sequence. Forced like her Hogwarts schoolmates to flee home in order to escape the encroaching forces of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) casts a spell on her unsuspecting parents that erases any memory of her, a process that also literally removes her image from the family portraits lining their mantelpiece.

This isn’t your grade schooler’s Harry Potter – no quidditch matches, classroom hijinks, or school dances. Indeed, Hogwarts is never seen at all. Instead, the still-suffocating Potter vernacular is mercifully co-opted by a story steeped in genuine human emotions: love, friendship, racism, loyalty, betrayal, etc. As Harry, Hermoine, and Ron (Daniel Radcliffe, Watson, and Rupert Grint, respectively) have aged before our eyes, so too have the challenges facing them grown more treacherous.

With Harry’s friends shielding the Chosen One from Voldemort’s omnipotent pall, the dark lord’s minions capture control over the Ministry of Magic and initiate their “Final Solution” to exterminate Muggles and any other non-pure-bloods. Wizards-in-waiting are now indoctrinated with such propaganda as “Mudbloods and The Dangers They Pose” and “When Muggles Attack,” written and illustrated to resemble Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic Nazi invectives.

With the death of Harry’s father-figure Dumbledore and minimal assistance from their dwindling adult mentors, it now falls to Harry and Co. to defeat Voldemort by gathering and destroying Horcruxes that sustain the villain’s immortality…or something like that. Also figuring into the equation are the so-called deathly hallows, which we learn about via an ancient fable director David Yates tells using a clever animation sequence.

In HPDH1, Harry, Hermoine, and Ron’s task assumes an epic grandeur, more atmospheric, meditative, and slower than previous installments. Accompanied by the plaintive refrains of composer Alexandre Desplat, they hopscotch from dungeons to Piccadilly Circus to endless sweeping vistas, battling not only Death Eaters but also their own hormonal angst. In particular, Yates brings to the surface Ron’s festering resentment towards the more popular Harry as well as his insecurity over their respective relationships with Hermoine.

The evening after Ron storms out on his friends, Harry and Hermoine console each other with an impromptu slow dance set to “O Children” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Forgive us now for what we’ve done/It started out as fun/Here, take these before we run away/The keys to the gulag.” It’s an affecting scene redolent of an art-house coming of age picture, much less a multi-million dollar film sequel.

The darker, worldly themes in the last three Harry Potter films – the best of the bunch, and all directed Yates, not coincidentally – are unsurprising once you realize they are adapted from the only books J.K. Rowling wrote post-9/11. Moreover, the first hour of HPDH1 is the most provocative in the entire film series, although that does amplify the monotony that takes root during the film’s second half as Yates applies the narrative brakes in preparation for Part 2’s finale next July.

Still, even if the battles for Hogwarts and Harry’s soul have yet to be fought, the merit of the once vapid Harry Potter films has finally been established. Luckily, they saved the best for last.

Neil Morris

*Originally published at http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1-is-decidedly-dark-and-tremendous/Content?oid=1808900

Bottle Shock

How do you get rid of your split ends?

Grade: C +

Director: Randall Miller

Starring: Chris Pine, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Rachael Taylor, Freddy Rodriguez, and Dennis Farina

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Comparing the Napa-set dramedy Bottle Shock to Sideways would be like sipping boxed plonk after a quality pinot noir. There is probably a good movie to be made about the 1976 seminal Parisian wine tasting in which California’s upstart vineyards bested the finest French vintages. Unfortunately, writer-director Randall Miller’s watered-down script squanders a game cast and gorgeous scenery in this contrived trifle.

Subplots are cultivated only to quickly wither on the vine, such as a love triangle between a scruffy winery heir (Chris Pine), a Latino farmhand (Freddy Rodriguez), and a comely intern (Rachael Taylor). As English expatriate and struggling vintner Steven Spurrier, Alan Rickman gives the film’s standout performance, even if his repeated, near-orgasmic reactions to sampling everything from chardonnay to KFC grow tiresome. Indeed, this is a film in which a mere sip of fine cabernet sauvignon prompts instant lovemaking inside rickety shacks sitting atop vineyard vistas, and where one character attests “the smell of the vineyard is like inhaling birth.” Coming soon to a cable TV network near you.

Neil Morris