Jul 13 2011
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2′ Review: A kind of magic
PCN RATING: 
After ten years and seven previous films, Harry Potter, boy wizard and Chosen one, finally faces his destiny and the end of one of the most successful and daunting franchises in film history. With the help of David Yates and his astoundingly large cast of British talent, Potter gets a send-off worthy of the best fantasy adventures. This isn’t just a satisfactory wrap-up, it’s a victorious epic, bringing terrible magic and poignant beauty to the end of a long journey.
Although the first cinematic chapter of Deathly Hallows felt sternly committed to the grounded muggleness of life in war time—it’s been called ‘the camping trip movie’—this one evokes the outsized myth-making of post-war survival ballads. David Yates has been streamlining the series and keeping it firmly rooted in a recognizable and plausible universe, skimming off most of the bombast. Yates has been holding back before, but here he crafts such big, out-sized adventure that the best of it ends up as iconic and sweeping as classics like The Wizard of Oz and The Fellowship of the Ring.
Dizzying descents into goblin vaults, escapes on the backs of winged dragons, and armies of stone automatons marching on squadrons of dark wizards are amongst the exhilarating flights of fancy given refreshing realism via Yates understated visual touch. Through it all, the director and long-time Potter scripter Steve Kloves keep their focus on the characters, making this last film a testament to movie escapism both large and small.
While massive giants hurl gnarled clubs at good wizards, dark ones come behind, storming the grounds of Hogwarts like a plague of shadowy locusts. Severus Snape, serving as headmaster, skulks forebodingly in the shadows, Nagini the snake slithers along behind its master, and those spider progeny of Aragog skitter up and over the courtyard walls. Neville Longbottom, now leading the concscript army of students, joins Harry, Ron and Hermione in Hogsmead, and with the help of Aberforth Dumbledore (Albus’ brother), take back the school just in time to witness Voldemort’s forces cascade over the hill outside the Dark Forest.
And yet, fans of the series didn’t just show up to see a conflict of special effects and production design slamming haphazardly into one another. Most of us are in this for the characters, whether having fallen for them on the movie screen or the printed page, and seeing those relationships, suspicions, and tragic choices finally pay off will resonate far more deeply than any fantastical siege.
Thankfully, Yates doesn’t make us choose, and gives us both. He follows the basic battlefield strategy Rowling has set-up, but changes the emphasis in several places. This forces Harry mostly into the foreground, showcasing Radcliffe and trusting him to carry the emotional brunt of this dramatic crescendo. The young actor handles it admirably, and it’s amazing to see how much he’s grown as a performer and as Harry Potter, rising to meet the character’s legacies, both literary and fantastical. By the time Potter grabs Voldie, both of them positioned over a broken rampart, and Radcliffe fiercely intones ‘Let’s finish this Tom, the way we began it—together!’, he’s well and truly established himself as the Chosen one.
But this has never been a one-man show. Potter has always been a tale enriched by its colorful characters, of which there are a whole school full. How do you do all of them—living, dead, and in a few cases, undead—the justice they deserve in the space of a little over two hours? Rowling had more leeway on the printed page, where she took the time she felt she needed to close up shop. Yates has a ticking clock of sorts; he’s got to give them screen time, but momentum is also important to the success of the story.
For the most part, he triumphs in this regard, sometimes trumping the author herself when it comes to satisfying send-offs. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson aren’t quite as accomplished as Radcliffe in the acting department, but both hold their own, and Watson in particular illuminates small moments with a nervous/concerned energy that make more than a few scenes positively shine. Grint’s Ron mostly shambles about muttering ‘brilliant’ and being Han Solo to the bond between Harry and Hermione. At the end of the day he may get the girl, but today he’s got to hold it all together as sidekick. An additional, wonderful little kiss between he and Watson in the basilisk chamber offsets the rampant darkness with the giddy joy of life. It’s both actors best moment in the film, and possibly the franchise.
Of the other characters, two stand out above the rest; Severus Snape and Tom Riddle, both linked by tragic, odd childhoods and the twisted wreckage of dark choices. Snape and the eventual revelation of his back-story form the centerpiece of Deathly Hallows 2, and as a sequence, it’s probably Yates finest work in the film. For most of the series Alan Rickman has humbly done his Snape schtick as little more than a cameo, waltzing in, stealing a scene here or there, and waltzing back off. When Harry looks in the pensieve to see the memories of the teacher that gave him the most trouble, it’s a winning moment. Rickman sells Snape’s last scene as legitimate tragedy; in the final unfurling frames, his character is seen in full for the first time, no mask necessary.
But if Rowling’s prose expanded and vindicated Snape as a rich character, her writing of Voldemort did nothing to solidify the fearsomeness and mystery of the dark lord. In the book, he comes off like a prideful thug; a schoolyard bully writ large. This might have been partially Rowling’s intent, but he lacked real threat and menace. On screen Feinnes better understands his dichotomy; he’s more frightening, loathsome and even pathetic than the novels’ version. Without Feinnes imposing, yet restrained, performance he wouldn’t be nearly as memorable.
The supporting players are all wonderful. I nearly clapped aloud when Maggie Smith’s ancient Professor McGonnagal picks up her wand and works REAL magic. Her protective shield over Hogwarts physically trembles like the membranes of a leaf, and when she wills the very architecture of the castle to rise up and defend it, she summons memories of fellow classy Brit broad Angela Lansbury animating medieval armor to fend off Nazis in ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’. Warwick Davis, an underrated film presence of there ever was one, does double duty as two characters. Although goblin Griphook is a fascinating turn, diminutive Prof Flitwick gets lost (figuratively not literally) beneath the tramping armies of the final milieu. Matthew Lewis as Neville has grown right out of his gawkiness to be a heroic everyman; the books made him a kind of counter-Harry, a chosen one for the underdog. Yates cut those bits from Phoenix that suggested Neville might have been the prophesied warrior, but he delivers the same implication via Lewis’ strong, steadfast delivery of a touching battlefield speech. Ciaran Hinds as Aberforth is a really effective addition, and it shows how carefully cast these things are because he’s only got one real scene to his name. All of the others you are wondering about are here too, given varying amounts of screen time and/or things to do. Victims of an overstuffed adventure, the Malfoys are probably the most ill-used. Then again, this was also true of the novel.
At the end of the day, this is a great fantasy, and one of the finest caps to a long-running saga that I’ve ever seen. From Alexander Desplat’s moody and engaging score, that knows just when to evoke John William’s iconic theme, to Eduardo Serra’s cinematography that casts light and shadow in their own war for dramatic substance, this is a film of handsome craft and emotional urgency. With so much moody splendor on screen, the 3D version of Potter just gets in its own way. No matter, that’s not the best way to see it anyway. Yates understands that all the extra dimensions we need look for are hiding there under the skin of the characters. And in the end, when we reach Rowling’s gentle but silly epilogue, there’s an honest to goodness farewell for the series that just feels right.
That’ll do, Harry. That’ll do.
Jul 14, 2011 @ 17:58:59
never saw any of these don’t have an opinion.