MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 

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: 58 Days to go: 41

Movie #382:  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Darkness has come to Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his Death Eaters are out in full force, young Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been charged with a deadly task, enigmatically-aligned Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) has made an unbreakable vow to help him, and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) seems to know his time is limited.

He doesn’t let on about that knowledge to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), though, or anyone else in the Order. Dumbledore is a man who always keeps his cards very close to his chest. What he does, however, is pass on as much knowledge to Harry as he possibly can, in private sessions where he teaches Harry about Voldemort, by sharing his memories of him in his pensieve. It is in these sessions Harry and Dumbledore confirm Voldemort’s use of horcruxes — a dark device used to hold a piece of his soul so that he may never completely die — and that he had planned, back when he was in school, to create seven of them.

The horcruxes include the diary Harry destroyed in Chamber of Secrets and a ring that apparently blackened Dumbledore’s hand over the summer (the story is thrilling but best saved for another time, or so he says). The rest, they will have to find, and the quest they take for one — a locket — turns out to be harrowing, potentially deadly, and possibly fruitless. (It is here Harry almost drowns for the second time, being pulled under by the souls of the dead who inhabit the cursed lake near which the horcrux resides.) It does not bode well for Harry’s future success.

Other evil lurks around corners, too, as one student is cursed and Ron (Rupert Grint) is poisoned by efforts which Harry is certain are Draco’s. He confronts him, they battle, and Harry winds up using a spell on Draco he read in a mysterious old potion book. The spell cuts Draco to shreds, and Severus is forced to heal him. (This also tips Severus off to the fact that Harry is using this book, which used to belong to Severus himself, though the reveal is not handled well in this movie at all, and the entire impact of the mysterious Half-Blood Prince is diminished for other plot points.)

One of those plot points deemed far more important for the film to explore is the blossoming of young love at Hogwarts. Ginny (Bonnie Wright) is dating Dean Thomas (How to Get Away with Murder‘s Alfred Enoch), much to Harry’s chagrin. Ron is snogging Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave) on a near-constant basis, and it’s killing Hermione (Emma Watson). And Cormac McClaggen (Freddie Stroma) is licking his finger’s in Hermione’s general direction while Romilda Vane (Anna Shaffer) is smuggling love potion into Harry’s dorm room. It’s silly at times, heartbreaking at others, and another reminder that aside from a magical battle of good and evil, Rowling’s Harry Potter stories are all really about the act — the pain, the joy, the hardships and the trials — of growing up.

Of course, a Harry Potter story as dark as this one probably wouldn’t be enjoyable at all if not for the delightful comic relief of one Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who returns to Hogwarts as Potions Master while Snape finally takes his place teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Slughorn is a perfect example of a Slytherin who is not bent on badness, but merely self-interest and ambition. He likes to “collect” famous or prominent or skilled wizards in order to get himself a bit of prominence or favoritism in the bargain, be it tickets to Quidditch matches or being published in the Daily Prophet or simply running with an influential crowd. But he’s really much more funny than cloying, and as he likes to enjoy his Butterbeer, he’d probably be fun to hang out with. Slughorn’s scenes are always offering up a joke or a funny line-reading, or even a flabbergasted exclamation of “Merlin’s Beard!” But the best scene of all is when Harry drinks the Liquid Luck potion in an attempt to worm the information he needs out of old Slughorn. Broadbent is a natural (if uncommon) comedian, but Daniel Radcliffe really stretches his comedic legs in this scene, acting almost drunk and leisurely in the most delightful way. It brings a definite stream of brightness into an otherwise dour film, filled with foreboding turns of events.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is when everything comes to a head and all-out war is near. There’s no going back for this, just as there’s no going back to Hogwarts for Harry. When we return tomorrow, it’s the beginning of the end.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Moulin Rouge!

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: 192  Days to go: 197

Movie #185:  Moulin Rouge!

If you’re looking for a movie that’s wildly theatrical, over the top and amazing, director Baz Luhrmann is the gold standard. It’s his signature style and I don’t know anyone who does it better. His films are glorious spectacles — feasts for the eyes. Though not my favorite of his films, Moulin Rouge! is the best, most shining example of this .

Set in 1899 Paris and the “Bohemian revolution,” a young writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor) happens into an opportunity to pen the show “Spectacular, Spectacular” for production at the Moulin Rouge club. Championed by Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), he goes there one evening to win over the star, a courtesan named Satine (Nicole Kidman), with his poetry so she will approve of him taking over the show’s script. Meanwhile, Satine is being encouraged by her manager Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent, being amazing and virtually unrecognizable) to quote-unquote entertain a Duke in attendance that evening (Richard Roxburgh) to get him to invest in the show. Naturally, Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke and attempts to seduce him, but his earnest adoration (and impeccable singing of modern tunes) captivates her and she falls for him. Unlike a lot of those mistaken identity stories, this misunderstanding is rectified almost immediately and the real tension of the film comes from Satine trying to hide her growing love for Christian from the Duke while also stringing the Duke along so as not to jeopardize the show or the club. Also, she’s dying. (Any woman who coughs roughly in the first act of an old-timey story, must die of consumption in the third. It’s Chekov’s tuberculosis.)

The real draw, though, and the thing that sets Moulin Rouge! truly apart, are the musical performances to popular songs from the twentieth century. Satine does a mash-up of “Material Girl” and its reel world inspiration “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” while Madonna gets another nod as Zidler knocks out a great cover of “Like a Virgin.” Elton John’s “Your Song” gets to play very large in the plot, meanwhile, and The Police’s “Roxanne” is featured nicely. The rest of the songs are incredible medleys, from “Zidler’s Rap” featuring “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a modernized “Lady Marmalade,” to a show-stopper on top of Satine’s elephant that brings together nearly every iconic love song it can think of (by everyone from The Beatles to U2 to Dolly Parton) as part of a unique call and response.

The original music is great, too, though, and the marquee song, “Come What May” lives up to every expectation. It’s a powerful, anthemic, soaring love song that builds passion and hope in equal measure. The ridiculous rules technicality that kept it from Oscar eligibility  is just another reason the Best Original Song category needs a serious revamp (not that I begrudge Randy Newman winning his first Oscar, but come on). As far as I’m concerned that was the best original song in a movie that year.

I know a lot of people who shirk Moulin Rouge! because of its crazy, flamboyant, musical nature, and if that’s not typically your thing, fine. I get it. But I think Moulin Rouge! is the type of film that’s surprisingly, unexpectedly enjoyable for those who go in not really into it, and incredibly fabulous for everyone already predisposed to like it. So it’s a win-win. What more can you ask for? Kylie Minogue as an absinthe fairy hallucination? Done!