The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 61 Days to go: 42
Movie #379: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
For Christmas, the month after seeing Chamber of Secrets, I got my first Harry Potter book. Then I got the other three and read them all in short order. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was my easy favorite, and by the time movie posters started showing up in the local multiplex, replicating the wanted notice for Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), asking, “Have You Seen This Wizard,” I was giddy. (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Orlando has an animated one, just like in the film. It is my very favorite thing.)
As the tone and mood gets darker in the lives of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), so does the look and feel of the film. Alfonso Cuarón’s direction plays with light and shadow, angle and focus, to create a visually affecting piece of art. When the dementors come into a scene, for example, not only do the edges of everything frost over, but the very sense of the thing is coldness, so much so that it seems to lower the temperature of the air around the audience as well.
The plot of Prisoner of Azkaban is also rich, as Rowling introduces several characters from the past (in addition to a few crucial devices, like the secret passages and the Marauder’s Map) who will have a great impact on Harry and his future. The clandestine group of friends known as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs — made up of Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall), Sirius, and Harry’s father James (Adrian Rawlins) — were my favorite new additions, and their story a twisty and compelling one. I regretted somewhat that the film didn’t execute the reveal quite as well as the book did, but overall the handling of this meeting of the past with the present was done quite well. I love the way Lupin is a real mentor for Harry, and the way he’s also a friend the way he was to James. I love the way Peter is fidgety and scattered after years of living as a rat. I love that Harry’s pratronus is an image of his father’s animagus form. And I’m especially heartwarmed by the thought of Sirius being a father to Harry, who has been without for so long.
Given my penchant for stories of the manipulation of time, it’s to be expected that Azkaban would be my favorite Harry Potter tale. In perfect form, the events in question happen the first time simultaneously with the second time, so that if you’re paying attention you can see (and hear) the manipulation going on off-screen, and then you get to see it all as it actually played out from a wider, alternate angle. It’s like getting a behind the scenes look at something to show you how it was different than you thought. And I desperately want a time turner necklace. I mean, I have one, from Universal Studios, but the chain isn’t as long as Hermione’s and it doesn’t actually turn back time. I’d like a real one.
Until the very end of the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is actually the most hopeful of all the installments, despite its dark themes and slow advance toward the return of the dark lord. At the end of the film, Sirius is safe, Harry has a true family member who loves him, and there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It won’t be until Year Four that things turn deadly.
Viable Option 