To my roommate Tanu who got me premiere tickets to this movie. First time I've watched a movie this early in its lifecycle (though I must admit, my tally of ‘Movies I've watched on the First Day First Show’ remains at zero :( )
Like many fans of the Harry Potter books, I’m not too enthusiastic about its movie versions. The first two were so insipid, so lacking in any originality whatsoever and so completely inane, that they tarred the movies of the series firsthand into a much lower league of art. The screen magic seemed to be so formulaic, so uninteresting, while the books were getting more magical, far more powerful. We readers knew where our ‘loyalties lay’.
Then came Cuaron’s movie, the Prisoner of Azkaban, the most beautiful movie in the series so far. Cuaron’s magical world was so open and natural. In the earlier books, we’d never seen much of where Hogwarts lay, and even Rowling dint seem to give us too clear a picture of how it would be to travel around Hogwarts. But Cuaron laid his finger on the nub with his portrayal of the place, and its character. The Whomping Willow appeared at its most lifelike, a central figure carrying the theme of the changing seasons and passing timeline on its gnarled shoulders. It was truly magical to carry something back from the movie to the book, and to this day I have Cuaron’s Whomping Willow as my mental picture of it.
I approached the fourth movie with a suppressed longing for the class of Cuaron, with special feelers out for the Quidditch World Cup and Mad Eye Moody. While the former was conspicuous by its absence, Mad-Eye was all that I could ask for. With that snaked forking of his tongue and overbearing presence, he was a Moody I could instantly recognize and appreciate. But the rest of the movie was struggling to keep up with the book, and the major events were all strewn around haphazardly, that’s about all I remember of it.
In the run up to the release of the fifth movie, I was deaf to all the hype surrounding the movie and its director, having long been beaten into submissive acceptance of the fact that Cuaron’s magic was a one-off high point in the series. David Yates was a completely unknown name, and I wasn’t prepared to even distantly consider the possibility that he could make a good movie out of what was definitely my favourite book in the series. This book is special because here we see for the first time, the gritty realities of the magical world. Voldemort is finally back, in all his physical glory. The whole world is feeling his retribution, albeit being deliberately bamboozled with accusations aimed tangentially and targeting everyone from Sirius Notorious-mass-murderer-escapee-from-Azkaban Black, to the Harry-Evil Attention Seeker- Potter to Albus-SenileYetPowerHungry-Dumbledore. Fudge is in denial, and Harry is in rage, and Dumbledore is distant. Dementors are out of control and some of the most dangerous death-eaters are at large. but in the midst of all these serious events, Fred and George fly out of Hogwarts in style with the words “Give her hell from us, Peeves” and Peeves rises to the occasion gloriously with a salute of his plumed hat. That has to be one of the best moments any Potter fan has experienced.
The movie takes some inspiration from where Cuaron left it, as a truly artistic movie, instead of a gasping attempt to summarize the book. Umbridge, played to perfection by Imelda Staunton, is one of the best things about this movie. Yates has endowed her with the sort of pious moral superiority that even Rowling dint bring out well enough. There she is, with that cooing evil voice of hers, telling Potter he deserves to be punished as his hand bleeds from the assignment she’s set. Luna Lovegood is quite impressive too, quite naturally dreamy without the Loony-ness being over emphasized. Yates is no immature director. He seems to know the pitfalls of stereotyping the character and has dealt with it quite gently and with taste. Another brilliant idea brought out in the movie, is the depiction of Filch and his ever-taller ladders as he nails up the decrees that are being issued almost continuously by the Ministry of Magic, as Umbridge slowly encroaches upon every liberty that the school allows. And fittingly, we see all the decrees turned to dust with the Weasley' Wizarding Wheezes wreaking havoc all over the place. Another touch that I liked in the movie was the depiction of the ministry building. Though it was all a little too sparkling-tiles-and-mirror-finish-walls, it had this huge portrait of Fudge in a dark trench coat plus hat, looking very ministerial and rather self-aggrandizing. It gave one a very good taste of the current political scene. Harry’s rage and solitude which were a trifle over-emphasized in the book, were depicted more naturally, without any elaboration in the movie. At places where the movie veered off from the book, the changes were still of the sort that did not change anything critical and jelled well with the characters and environment that had been the setting for the book. Yates is set to direct the sixth installment too, and I for one am looking forward to it for sure.
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