Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Having concluded his literary journey more than three years ago, the bespectacled wizard hero Harry Potter has now begun the final stages of his cinematic adventure. After nearly a decade of big-screen experience, he’s on the verge of shedding his celluloid skin and he’s about to leave a uniquely accomplished franchise in his wake. By the time the series smoke clears next summer, there will have been eight Harry Potter movies released over a span of less than ten years. That is a feat few franchises can boast. But accomplishments aside, this latest instalment signals the beginning of the end and it is clear from the start that despite some fleshy obstacles standing in his way, director David Yates is determined to give fans a swan song to remember.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (splitting the final novel into two parts has allowed, among other things, for the movie titles to grow even longer) is a somewhat messy instalment marred by wooden acting, but ultimately saved by Yates’ imaginative ability to truly put on a show. For its entire running time (leaning in the direction of two-and-a-half hours), this latest Harry Potter movie is no less than a dazzling, daring tour de force. The visual vibrancy on display is utterly astonishing and the energy with which this behemoth powers forward is exhausting.
The visual effects are damn near flawless and are easily the best in the series. The creatures, spells, and buildings are all realized with the aid of some undeniably impressive digital mastery. JK Rowling’s fantasy world has never looked so beautiful, so expansive, and so, well, fantastic. It’s also never looked so grim, which is intriguing given how progressively dark each successive book/movie proves to be. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 seems to have taken the growing darkness as a dare and ends up skirting the edges of horror territory on numerous occasions. There are plenty of moments designed to make the viewer jump and Yates is pretty good at executing the scares, even though he employs the frights in predictable fashion.
Even with its lengthy running time and restricted allowance in regards to the amount of Rowling’s sprawling final book that can be used for this particular movie, there is no slow building to tension in this instalment. Past Potter pictures have taken their time to settle into their own adventure (a result of the books as much as this movie’s opening is), but there is a sense of urgency that permeates the very opening frames of Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Yates is eager to share his big, bold vision and he spends only a few minutes establishing a sense of apocalyptic doom on the horizon before launching into the movie’s first action sequence.
Following a familiar flight through the Warner Bros. shield, we are soon hurled into a violent chase sequence that takes us from the air to the ground and then back again. Tearing down a very real highway and then zooming through the clouds as spells erupt from every direction, Yates pulls off what is arguably the most exciting sequence in the entire Harry Potter movie franchise. It’s a raucous rollercoaster ride and a hyper-charged hint at what Yates plans to unveil throughout the rest of the movie. The movie calms down for another few minutes after this great chase, but it isn’t long before the young heroes find themselves in the midst of another dangerous situation that is made boisterous and fun by the movie’s extensive visual vocabulary.
It’s hard not to dwell on the sheer joy that the imagery conjures, since Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is so ripe with ocular delights. But I cannot praise the movie wholeheartedly (even if my salivating over the visuals seems to say otherwise), since the dramatic and emotional experience is so awkwardly undermined by the stiff performances of the three leads. With each growth spurt, it becomes more and more difficult to forgive the inanity of the acting. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are now young adults and their acting has barely improved since the first Harry Potter movie, when they were quite a bit shorter and considerably squeakier.
They’re so wooden in Deathly Hallows: Part 1 that their shared scenes feel a lot like watching a trio of tree trunks trying to emote. They operate on basic planes of emotion, looking dour when they’re sad and screaming a lot when they’re angry. There’s not much to smile about in their current situation (a basic plot synopsis for the movie could boil down to villain Voldemort getting a whole lot more powerful, while the heroes stand around and accomplish almost nothing), so it’s understandable that Harry, Hermione, and Ron tend to be a little angstier than usual. But it’s deeply challenging to actually feel the gravity of the danger that surrounds them (it’s the end of the world for them, while it’s just the end of the franchise for us) and that means the movie fails on a primal dramatic level.
It also means that the visuals have to work overtime to make up for the shortcomings of the lead cast members. Of course, the visuals are more than up for the task and so Deathly Hallows: Part 1 still manages to make an iconic impression. I can only imagine the kind of heights the movie could have scaled were Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint capable of communicating the emotional elements at their level, but I remain overly thankful for the thrill ride that the movie still delivers with ambitious aplomb. And it’s not like even the older cast members (many of whom ooze talent and skill) are all that interesting here, either, since they all have so little to do.
Imelda Staunton is primly eerie as the power-hungry Ministry of Magic employee with an endlessly pink wardrobe, but she’s only on screen for a couple minutes. Helena Bonham Carter tries hard to be even more decrepitly gothic than when she appears in partner Tim Burton’s flicks, but she too is a victim of brief screentime and could also be accused of camping it up. As the movie’s main antagonist, Ralph Fiennes is handed the most time to flash a nasty smirk out of all the villains, but he’s not nearly as scary as the intangible sense of dread that hangs over the movie like a Yates-controlled cloud. It doesn’t help that Fiennes’ serpentine makeup is beginning to look a tad silly.
With the flesh-and-blood performers doing little to invigorate the narrative’s emotional core, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is without the benefits of a crucial element of the cinematic experience. But instead of destroying the movie, this missing piece only wounds it, leaving room for Yates and his team of effects wizards to wow us with their imagined visual magnificence. This movie is so full of wonder and poignantly juxtaposed beauty that it renders the entire production quite special, in spite of its flaws. At one point, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are seen walking through a pristine field covered in gloriously green grass. In the next scene, they are glimpsed passing through a sea of torched trailers. Even in such dark times, Rowling’s world is both gorgeous and hideous. As we near the end of this franchise, Yates is now pulling out all the stops to ensure a worthy conclusion. This latest instalment may suffer at the hands of the flesh-and-blood beings that populate the narrative, but there’s still magic pumping vigorously and violently through its veins.
