A reviewer for the Washington Post described "Half-Blood Prince" as a Harry Potter movie for non-fans. As a Harry Potter fan myself, I not only loved this film but thought it was one of the best of the Potter movies, rivaled only by the third, "Prisoner of Azkaban," directed by Alfonso Cuaron. The reviewer was confusing fans with fanboys. Of all the movies, this one is probably the least faithful to the source material. It eliminates large sections, makes subtle changes to what it does show, and includes one violent sequence that sharply contradicts the book. Fanboys (who are not, I should mention, all male) are deeply bothered by this, because they want the movies simply to replicate the events of the books on screen. Of course that would be impossible, unless each film was at least five hours long. The best they can hope for is what director Chris Columbus did with the first two films, stuffing as many events as he could manage into two-and-half-hour slots.
I, as a fan and non-fanboy, want the movies to bring the story to life, and to do that, sometimes it is necessary to depart from the literal narrative of the books. I want a movie that can stand alone and be judged on its own terms, without depending on prior knowledge of the book. In one particularly awkward moment from the previous film, "Order of the Phoenix," a character references the code names from the Marauder's Map, a plot point that had never been mentioned before in the films. Those who haven't read the books will have no idea what the character is talking about.
"Half-Blood Prince" is actually my least favorite of the books. It has an ungainly plot, it feels transitional, and it ends with a shocking but infuriatingly ambiguous climax. There is relatively little action, much of the plot centering on meetings between Harry and Dumbledore, in which the two enter the pensieve--a magical item that lets them relive various people's memories. In this book, they are attempting to piece together the dark wizard Voldemort's past to figure out a way to defeat him.
Dumbledore has hired a new Potions teacher named Slughorn who once taught at Hogwarts when Voldemort was a student. Dumbledore wants Harry to befriend the man so that he will divulge information he has been hiding. This task may be easier than it sounds, for Harry gets hold of a Potions textbook with notes, mysteriously attributed to the "Half-Blood Prince," that make him a star pupil in Slughorn's class. Meanwhile, Harry suspects Draco Malfoy and Snape of secretly working for Voldemort and plotting against Dumbledore. But Dumbledore trusts Snape completely and refuses to listen to Harry's warnings.
The book also deals with Harry's budding love life. Harry begins to find himself attracted to Ron's sister Ginny (who had a crush on Harry when she was younger). There's just one problem: Rowling never bothers to give Ginny a personality. I almost got the sense that Harry courts her because he wants to marry into the Weasley family. I would have preferred to see Harry hook up with a better-developed character, such as the flaky Luna Lovegood.
The movie follows this basic plot outline, but excludes many of the details. We don't get to see, for example, the memories of Voldemort's ancestors, an excursion in the book that answers some questions but hardly advances the plot. We do get to see Voldemort as a child, played wonderfully by an 11-year-old actor named Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. But the movie is not all plot; it remembers to put in the small moments that bring the characters to life: the conversations between the kids, and their interactions with beloved characters like Professor McGonagall and Hagrid (who gets a funny little scene involving the recently deceased giant spider from the second film).
A few subtle changes work nicely. While the movie is unable to make Ginny into a more compelling character, it gives her a greater role in certain crucial events. As in the book, Ron gets a girlfriend and makes Hermione jealous, but the movie has a well-conceived scene in the hospital ward that satisfyingly addresses this tension. The book depicts two apparently unrelated incidents involving the appalling combination of an invisibility cloak and a "body-bind" curse. The second time it happens, it seems like dramatic overkill. The film finds a better way to handle it.
The acting and visuals are nearly perfect, making this the first Harry Potter movie with no overacting (though I continue to be underwhelmed by Michael Gambon's Dumbledore) or phony special effects (though Robbie Coltrane still does not make a convincing giant). I reserve particular praise for Rupert Grint, as Ron. I always thought he was the least impressive of the three main kids. Here, he's terrific, especially in a scene where he becomes enspelled. Also noteworthy is Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy; there are many effective scenes where the camera pans over his face and we sense the inner conflict in his character. The eminent Jim Broadbent, as the movie's guest star, brilliantly captures the personality, if not the appearance, of the flutter-brained Slughorn.
At 153 minutes, the film is continuously compelling as well as entertaining, despite the introspective tone and scattershot events. Nobody is more surprised than I am, for the director is David Yates, whose previous venture into the series, "Order of the Phoenix," was by far the worst Harry Potter movie. The pacing was choppy, and the direction of crucial scenes was amateurish and clichéd. I was disappointed when I first learned that Yates was chosen to direct the remaining films in the series. Here, he has redeemed himself, and with it my confidence that the movies will continue to do justice to Rowling's books.
I, as a fan and non-fanboy, want the movies to bring the story to life, and to do that, sometimes it is necessary to depart from the literal narrative of the books. I want a movie that can stand alone and be judged on its own terms, without depending on prior knowledge of the book. In one particularly awkward moment from the previous film, "Order of the Phoenix," a character references the code names from the Marauder's Map, a plot point that had never been mentioned before in the films. Those who haven't read the books will have no idea what the character is talking about.
"Half-Blood Prince" is actually my least favorite of the books. It has an ungainly plot, it feels transitional, and it ends with a shocking but infuriatingly ambiguous climax. There is relatively little action, much of the plot centering on meetings between Harry and Dumbledore, in which the two enter the pensieve--a magical item that lets them relive various people's memories. In this book, they are attempting to piece together the dark wizard Voldemort's past to figure out a way to defeat him.
Dumbledore has hired a new Potions teacher named Slughorn who once taught at Hogwarts when Voldemort was a student. Dumbledore wants Harry to befriend the man so that he will divulge information he has been hiding. This task may be easier than it sounds, for Harry gets hold of a Potions textbook with notes, mysteriously attributed to the "Half-Blood Prince," that make him a star pupil in Slughorn's class. Meanwhile, Harry suspects Draco Malfoy and Snape of secretly working for Voldemort and plotting against Dumbledore. But Dumbledore trusts Snape completely and refuses to listen to Harry's warnings.
The book also deals with Harry's budding love life. Harry begins to find himself attracted to Ron's sister Ginny (who had a crush on Harry when she was younger). There's just one problem: Rowling never bothers to give Ginny a personality. I almost got the sense that Harry courts her because he wants to marry into the Weasley family. I would have preferred to see Harry hook up with a better-developed character, such as the flaky Luna Lovegood.
The movie follows this basic plot outline, but excludes many of the details. We don't get to see, for example, the memories of Voldemort's ancestors, an excursion in the book that answers some questions but hardly advances the plot. We do get to see Voldemort as a child, played wonderfully by an 11-year-old actor named Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. But the movie is not all plot; it remembers to put in the small moments that bring the characters to life: the conversations between the kids, and their interactions with beloved characters like Professor McGonagall and Hagrid (who gets a funny little scene involving the recently deceased giant spider from the second film).
A few subtle changes work nicely. While the movie is unable to make Ginny into a more compelling character, it gives her a greater role in certain crucial events. As in the book, Ron gets a girlfriend and makes Hermione jealous, but the movie has a well-conceived scene in the hospital ward that satisfyingly addresses this tension. The book depicts two apparently unrelated incidents involving the appalling combination of an invisibility cloak and a "body-bind" curse. The second time it happens, it seems like dramatic overkill. The film finds a better way to handle it.
The acting and visuals are nearly perfect, making this the first Harry Potter movie with no overacting (though I continue to be underwhelmed by Michael Gambon's Dumbledore) or phony special effects (though Robbie Coltrane still does not make a convincing giant). I reserve particular praise for Rupert Grint, as Ron. I always thought he was the least impressive of the three main kids. Here, he's terrific, especially in a scene where he becomes enspelled. Also noteworthy is Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy; there are many effective scenes where the camera pans over his face and we sense the inner conflict in his character. The eminent Jim Broadbent, as the movie's guest star, brilliantly captures the personality, if not the appearance, of the flutter-brained Slughorn.
At 153 minutes, the film is continuously compelling as well as entertaining, despite the introspective tone and scattershot events. Nobody is more surprised than I am, for the director is David Yates, whose previous venture into the series, "Order of the Phoenix," was by far the worst Harry Potter movie. The pacing was choppy, and the direction of crucial scenes was amateurish and clichéd. I was disappointed when I first learned that Yates was chosen to direct the remaining films in the series. Here, he has redeemed himself, and with it my confidence that the movies will continue to do justice to Rowling's books.