MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

 

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: 56 Days to go: 40

Movie #384:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Since that midnight showing of Chamber of Secrets back in 2002, I don’t think there was a single Harry Potter film I didn’t attend a midnight screening for. I was certainly not going to miss the first showing of the final installment. Being the end of the series, though, the midnight screening was handled a little differently. Instead of a single night of screenings of a single film, my local AMC theater offered an entire week of screenings — Monday thru Thursday — of the entire series, much like I’ve done for these posts. My husband, mother-in-law and stepdaughter went every night and watched two films, all leading up to the final night of Deathly Hallows part 1, followed by the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. That final morning, though — Thursday, July 14, 2011 — I had a growing suspicion and I took a test to confirm it. I was pregnant. It was scary and unexpected, but also thrilling and incredible. And I will always associate my first knowledge of my darling little princess with the final Harry Potter film. It’s fitting, really, because life, as we know, goes on. In our world as well as this fictional one.

From the very start of the series, death has always been an accepted and even integral part of life in the magical world. So it follows that death is an integral part of this last film as well. Indeed, it is his unnatural obsession with thwarting death, with living forever, that corrupts Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) so completely. No one is meant to live forever, and the twisted desire to will result in the ruination of your soul. It is for this reason that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) goes to die in the forest. It is the next logical step in the mystery, and the next step in destroying Voldemort. And as Neville (Matthew Lewis) says when they all think Harry has died, he still lives within them, just as all their fallen comrades do. “People die every day.” But not Harry. Harry is the boy who lived.

The maturation of Neville Longbottom over the course of the eight films is easily one of the most moving among all the characters. Not only has he changed physically (and oh, has he changed — Neville’s transformation from a schlubby kid to a tall, impressive young man is perhaps the best example to kids that they won’t always be the awkward dope they are at 11), but he’s grown in confidence and abilities too. He’s a leader now, and an inspiration to others. He’s also a courageous fighter, and it is he, not Harry, not Ron (Rupert Grint) and not Hermione (Emma Watson) who kills Voldemort’s snake Nagini.

Other characters get some triumphant moments in Part 2 as well. Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) stands up to Snape (Alan Rickman) and Slytherins looking to turn over Harry alike, as well as to use the spell she’s always wanted to use, in the protection of Hogwarts. Likewise, it is Luna (Evanna Lynch) and her rare and logical reasoning that directs Harry to the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw (Kelly Macdonald) to find the lost Ravenclaw diadem, long since turned into another of Voldemort’s horcruxes. And prototypical nurturer Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) has always been a formidable mother to her children, but mostly just a loving and gracious host the rest of the time. Not so when Ginny (Bonnie Wright) is threatened by mad killer Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). “Not my daughter, you bitch,” she shouts, and she unleashes some seriously badass magic, shriveling Bellatrix into nothing and then exploding her apart. Take THAT, you evil witch!

Helena Bonham Carter, of course, is a phenomenal actress, and no scene is better than her acting as Hermione disguised as Bellatrix via Polyjuice Potion. The uncertainty and stilted nature of her carriage and speech is masterful and so unlike the unflinching cruelty Carter infuses Bellatrix with normally. It may have been a longshot, but I really would’ve liked to see a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her in this film. She earned it, completely.

The movie is different from Rowling’s text in several places, as it needs to be in order to transform the story to a visual medium, but the spirit of the narrative remains largely intact to a really impressive degree. There are thrilling action sequences, weighty emotional scenes, and an almost zen acceptance of the inevitability of what’s to come. Be it the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis) leading Harry, Ron and Hermione into Bellatrix’s vault at Gringott’s Bank, and their subsequently wild escape on the back of a dragon, the terrifying release of the Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, Snape’s loving and heartbreaking memories of Harry’s mother Lily (Geraldine Somerville) (and Snape’s role in Dumbledore’s plan), Harry’s talk with Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in the heavenly King’s Cross Station, or Harry’s final battle with Voldemort, the film moves seamlessly between moods and tones and creates a world as fully realized on the screen as it was in our minds when reading the books. “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry, but why should that mean that it’s not real?”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 does not hold back at all, and several lives are lost in the course of the film. Characters on both sides are killed, and many of our favorites are still being mourned by fans. (I will never ever get over my beloved Fred (James Phelps) having to perish.) But death is a part of life, and no one can live forever except in our hearts. Which they do, as evidenced by the children we have to carry on our names and legacies, and the children Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione have as they start a brand new cycle of life and growth by sending their own children off to Hogwarts. A new generation to grow and change, to face their own trials, their own triumphs, and their own lives.

Life, as we know, goes on.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

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: 63 Days to go: 43

Movie #377:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

I was not aware of anything to do with Harry Potter when Sorcerer’s Stone came out. It was the last winter before I became a parent, and YA literature was nowhere near my radar. I was also working full-time and had gone back to school to finish my degree. When I went to the movies around that time, it was not to see what I assumed were kids’ movies. It reached my notice, of course, that Sorcerer’s Stone was incredibly successful, but I still never saw it until the following fall, when it happened to come on HBO and I decided to give it a shot. To my utmost surprise, I really loved it.

The movie is perhaps overlong, but it serves both fans of the books and newcomers equally well. As a newcomer myself that first time, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone provided ample introduction into the world of magic — and Hogwarts, especially. Part of this is a function of the story, as Harry himself (Daniel Radcliffe) was raised in the non-magic world, so he’s learning the ropes just as the audience is. For people who came in having read the book already, however (and I eventually read the whole series), one of the greatest gifts the movie brings to the table is the cast. The casting choices on this film — which would, in a lot of cases, have to serve the entire rest of the series — were so meticulously and carefully considered, it’s like Rowling’s very words have come to life. This is true, of course, in major characters, but also in minor ones. Everyone knows how Radcliffe, Ruper Grint (as Ron) and Emma Watson (as Hermione) embodied a lot of their character’s same personality traits in their actual lives, but consider a secondary player like Neville (Matthew Lewis), who needed to be sort of dumpy and bumbling at 12, but had to grow into confident and brave at 18. (We will definitely talk about that more in the coming days.) Or Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy? For every perfectly executed eye-roll by Hermione, there’s a haughty sniff from Draco that lets you know exactly who he is. Snape (Alan Rickman) sneers just like he did in your head, and who but Maggie Smith could be as strict but also as warm as Minerva McGonagall? Robbie Coltrane towers and lumbers and also warms the heart as Hagrid, and Richard Harris is a playful, mischievous, wise and understanding Dumbledore. Every one of the Weasleys (and there are so many) and every one of the Dursleys is equally, perfectly cast. All the magical special effects in the world could hardly make the film a richer experience than that impeccable cast does.

Watching the film now, of course, is like revisiting old baby pictures, as all the children were so much younger and smaller then than they are now. And to be honest, it’s more nostalgia that I watch it with now than focus on the story. I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted back in 2001 what a successful franchise the Harry Potter films would become — not just in box office, but in execution. (Indeed, I submit that they’re so financially successful in large part because they were executed so flawlessly.) But that success started here, with this film, and even if it’s the clunkiest and most expositional of them all (in part, necessarily so), none of the other films could’ve become what they did without it. In that respect, it’s truly a marvel what Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone accomplished.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Hook

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: 233  Days to go: 238

Movie #144:  Hook

Hook is an interesting movie — kind of sad, kind of sweet, kind of weird, and way too long. Based on the premise that the original Peter Pan story really happened, it posits that Peter (Robin Williams) eventually stayed with Wendy (Maggie Smith) in London — having fallen in love at first sight with Wendy’s granddaughter Moira (Caroline Goodall) — and grew up to be a boring, old fuddy-duddy named Peter Banning who has two kids, Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). But when the Banning clan travels back to London to visit Granny Wendy, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) returns and kidnaps Jack and Maggie to incite a war with Peter.

Spielberg has an affinity for father-son stories, and Hook delves into that quite a bit. Peter is a busy and important businessman with little time for family commitments — he takes a call (on a GIANT flip phone) during his daughter’s play and he misses Jack’s baseball game entirely. He doesn’t like his kids running around or making noise or being childish, and he frequently tells Jack, especially, to grow up. So when Jack finds himself in Neverland, and his father once again disappoints by not making enough of an effort (in Jack’s mind) to save them, Jack is easily swayed by the encouragement of Captain Hook and soon forgets his parents altogether. (Neverland makes you forget.)

Peter has also forgotten, but what he can’t remember is his life in Neverland, his life as Pan. “He can’t fly, he can’t fight, and he can’t crow,” as new Lost Boy leader Rufio (Dante Basco) points out. But Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) believes in Peter, and she convinces the Lost Boys to give him a chance. Bit by bit, he regains his memory and his playfulness and even his happy thoughts, naturally saving the day and returning home to their Happily Ever After, but the movie is clunky in several areas.

The casting of Hook is very, very weird. Robin Williams makes a great Pan, in theory, but he’s more than a little disquieting as a disapproving parent. Julia Roberts is an odd choice for Tinkerbell, in just about every conceivable way. I like her a lot, and I don’t mind the performance, but it’s a strange fit. Dustin Hoffman affects an unusual voice for Hook, and plays him with far more severity than the blundering silliness that had heretofore been a hallmark of the character would seem to call for. Meanwhile, Maggie Smith was only 57 when this movie came out and yet she’s costumed to look older than she currently does, actually approaching 80, on Downton Abbey. And there are all sorts of cameos that make no kind of sense at all: Phil Collins as a detective, David Crosby, Jimmy Buffett and Glenn Close as pirates, and a smooching George Lucas and Carrie Fisher just because.

Bob Hoskins actually works pretty well as Mr. Smee, but where the real casting triumphs are fall within the Lost Boys. Rufio is cocksure and swaggering — a confident leader with no use for this old, fat Peter. But he’s also just vulnerable and jealous enough to feel threatened by the Lost Boys’ faith in Pan. When his arrogance is struck down in a fight against the pirates, it’s an honest loss felt by all. The rest of the boys, too, are all adorable moppets with varying levels of smudged-nose adorableness and enthusiastic roughhousing, with the cream of the crop easily being Raushan Hammond as Thud Butt — a super cute, rotund little man who literally rolls himself into a ball to knock down some pirates in battle. He’s sweet and earnest and oh, so lovable. His genuine glee and awed pride at receiving Pan’s sword warms the heart for days.

The story itself is also a bit awkward and labored, but really seems to lend itself to being more enjoyable the more you disconnect from your rational mind — much like Peter needs to do in order to find his Pan. If you open your imagination and childlike spirit, the film can be quite touching and fun.

Sadly, not even childlike imagination can save Hook from being way too long. It could easily lose thirty minutes and probably be a much better film for it, but I still find it hard to let this one go. I keep it on my shelf through thick and thin because something in it just appeals to me. Perhaps it’s because I’ve lost my marbles.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Clash of the Titans

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order, by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 312  Days to go: 300

Movie #61: Clash of the Titans

I don’t remember the first time I saw Clash of the Titans, but I know I fell instantly in love with it. And no, this is obviously not about the ridiculous, awful Sam Worthington remake. This is the Harry Hamlin original — a perfect movie that was the most terrifying, the most thrilling, the most heroic  and amazing film I had ever seen. Within ten years of its release, at most, it was widely mocked for its stilted and awkward special effects, but that acknowledgment of its flaws didn’t diminish my love for it. The horrible green screen effects and the laughable claymation are part of the movie’s character, part of its charm. And while the effects might be a joke now, in 1981 they were pretty thrilling.

The giant Kraken, the ghastly Medusa, the adorable Bubo — these were all riveting, sensational characters. When Zeus (Laurence Olivier) transforms the figurine of Calibos from a tall, handsome man into a hunched, hideous creature with horns and claws and a tail — in fact, the way all the figurines could be transformed and manipulated by gods — was mind-blowing. And the gods themselves — Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) transforming from a seagull into a man, Thetis (Maggie Smith, looking luminous) animating her statue to punish the people of Joppa, and Zeus’s booming, otherworldly voice — were magical and enthralling. Every event, from the destruction of Argos to the foiling of the Stygian witches, from giant scorpions born from the blood of Medusa to the crumbling of the Kraken, was an electrifying and breathtaking display. It has never lost that impact on me.

Perseus (Harry Hamlin) was also a magnificent hero — handsome and brave, with a tantalizing, throaty voice that could be at once comforting and authoritative. I shipped him and Andromeda (Judi Bowker) but wasn’t surprised when I found out years later he’d been involved (and fathered a child) with bombshell Ursula Andress as the goddess Aphrodite. As the years have passed, I’ve increasingly felt Hamlin has had one of the most interesting lives and careers of current actors — I remember the heartthrob he was on L.A. Law, as well as how surprising it was to me when he married Lisa Rinna from Days of Our Lives and how vocal they were about their sexual attraction and relationship, and I am continually fascinated by his “resurgence” characters, starting as early as Aaron Echolls on Veronica Mars and moving more recently to Jimmy-Steve’s dad (and Ian’s gay sugar daddy) Ned on Shameless and the Machiavellian Jim Cutler on Mad Men — but it all started, at least for me, with the noble Perseus.

In truth, at some point the mythology of Clash of the Titans became the authority on Greek mythology in my eyes. Anything that didn’t coalesce with the Clash of the Titans‘s telling simply wasn’t right. That’s one of the many reasons I can’t stand the remake, honestly. And  it’s one of the reasons I love how in at least two John Cusack movies (A Sure Thing and Serendipity), he points out the constellation Cassiopeia — put there by Zeus to tell the story of her vanity and pride. Even Chris de Burgh’s “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” irks me — “Don’t pay the ferry man? Don’t even fix a price?” When Perseus crossed the River Styx, the skeletal ferryman in question didn’t give him a choice of paying later. So there.

Perhaps my fascination with Clash of the Titans is a bit overboard, but I don’t care. It’s still a rip-roaring adventure that I’m eager to embark on every time it’s on TV. My son, especially, loves it, too, so we can watch it together and giggle at the effects and talk about mythology and basically have all-around quality time together, just like my mother and I did back when I was seven or eight and beyond. It’s a perfect movie for all that.