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Directed by David Yates
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Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince One
of the pleasures of J.K. Rowling’s set of seven Harry Potter novels is
how seamlessly they move from a portrait of naive 11-year-olds in their first
year at boarding school into a life-and-death struggle for 18-year-olds
against the dreaded Voldemort. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince” is the sixth film (the seventh will be divided into two movies,
to be released in 2010 and 2011) and I think the very best of the series. Written by Steve Kloves
(who has written all but one of the films) and directed with exquisite timing
and beautiful imagery by David Yates, who directed the last one, clunkily, I thought; this is the one that will stand the
test of time. It contains two
story lines that ultimately meld together. The first is, of course, trying to
find a way to deal with the deadly Voldemort; the
second is to handle the adolescent crushes and loves that all teenagers are
heir to. Harry,
Ron and Hermione are now in their sixth year. The stakes have been raised by Voldemort and his human underlings – Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and – perhaps – Severus Snape (played chillingly again by Alan Rickman). They have killed and will kill
again. Against them the leader is
Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of
Hogwarts – played by Michael Gambon, and Gambon is good enough to make us forget Richard Harris,
who originated the role before he died.
Harry now knows he is The Chosen One, and as Dumbledore calls on him
to do more and more dangerous adventures, the film is stunning in its
photography and editing. The
production design is extraordinary, the editing is
both scary and compelling. I had
read and reread the books, and I still was mesmerized by its realism. This time we meet Tom Riddle, the boy
who will grow up to be Voldemort, and Jim Broadbent
as Professor Horace Slughorn, who was his teacher
and has a secret that must be exposed. At
the same time, adolescent life at Hogwarts goes on. Harry begins to feel a pent-up desire
for Ron’s sister Ginny, while Ron seems overprotective of her, and
Harry doesn’t quite know how to handle it. Hermione has a crush on Ron, which he
seems oblivious to. The wonderful
Evanna Lynch is back as the bizarre Luna Lovegood, as are most of the people we’ve seen
before. And
Yates, the director, handles all of this without even one seam showing;
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is a great success
– surely the best of the whole series. |