Masterful sorcery in Harry
Potter, Volume IV
Film in Focus
By David Giarrizzo
|  The
fourth installment of the “Harry Potter”
fantasies has scorched the big screen. Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry finally has the feeling of
an old spell curdled in bat brew run by very old people.
Director Mike Newell gives this fourth film of J. K.
Rowling's phenomenally successful literary series his
own darker, and hence more sophisticated, landscape.
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Harry starts back to Hogwarts for his fourth year with a
dark apocalyptic dream plaguing him -- which later unfolds
into a dark confrontation with his nemesis, Lord Voldermort.
 It
begins near the start of the film, but after the Quidditch
World Cup, which starts out as a fun renaissance type of fair
soon to be violently interrupted by the Death Eaters, allies
to Lord Voldermort. Harry is left alone on the scene of the
crime, knocked unconscious. A dark figure looms in the background
placing the dark mark, a scull with a serpent slithering out
of its eye, in the sky for everyone to see. Harry is almost
lost to this dark force until he is retrieved by officials
from the ministry of magic.
An international competition for seniors is being hosted
and the trials become death threatening, not your run of the
mill spells, these put the test of many young wizards to the
melting point of their steel. Two other schools of witchcraft
and wizardry; Beauxbaton an all girls school from France and
Durmstrang an all boys school from Bulgaria, have been invited
to join in the legendary Triwizard Tournament. Candidates,
who willingly enter by placing their names in the Goblet of
Fire, must be seventeen years old to join the dangerous competition
of three challenges. The Goblet chooses not three, but four
names. Big Harry, though only 14, cannot be excluded since
the Goblet appears to want him to play.
There’s a wonderful familiarity with the characters
that keeps getting stronger with each film. The kids--Radcliff,
Rupert Gint and Emma Watson--are finally comfortable in their
characters’ skin. Although they still have trouble hitting
those dramatic notes, their adolescent camaraderie is genuine.
Now that Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson)
are fourteen, they are becoming interested in sex. The "Yule
Ball" sequence emerges as the film's best section, a
humorous and touching observation of the torturous teenage
ritual of the high school prom experience. It's here where
we get to see some fun character interactions and personalities
played against each other, as our heroes Harry, Hermione,
and Ron all develop the petty jealousies and insecurities
we were all once familiar with (or, for some of the audience,
will be familiar with one day -- poor kids). Harry, still
not claiming his magical heritage, fumbles around girls. Ron,
after having a jealous spat with Harry, starts to notice his
feelings for Hermione Being more mature, Hermione accepts
Durmstrang's muscular star Viktor Krum's (Stanislav Ianevski)
invitation to the dance. The youths really shine here, and
the brink of sexual tensions is explored for the first time.
Newell, of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, shows he still
has a touch for this kind of thing, and it makes a strong
showing in Goblet.
Harry Potter fans demand certain things, so the film is somewhat
faithful to the book. There is a scene in the book where Dobbi,
the house elf Harry sets free, returns the favor with an herb
from the Hogwarts kitchen , which is where he works now. In
the film, Harry receives it from one of his classmates who
has a keen knowledge of plants. The civil rights of the house
elves is a pet project for Hermione in the book , but is neatly
avoided by leaving out lovable Dobbi, who, like kids and animals,
upstages the humans every time.
 More
than ever, there is just too many old, old wizards and witches
to keep track of, from Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) to . Madame
Olympe Maxime (Frances De La Tour), the instructor from guest
school Beauxbaton , a towering Sandy Allen-like character,
has a love interest with Robbie Coltrane’s character
Hagrid, at one point picking a morsel from his beard and snacking
upon it.
 Ugggh.
Doesn't magic also suggest enchantment and seduction? When
does magic get sexy? We get a glimpse of it with a frisky
ghost, Moaning Myrtle, who shamelessly flirts with the now
harry legged Harry in a bath tub scene that received whoops
and howls from the younger ladies in the audience. “Harry
is hot,” I quipped to one of my companions as the giggles
ensued with every bubble he grabbed at to cover his privates.
With the new characters, the casting is once again impeccable.
The Harry Potter movies have become a great way for prominent
British actors to pocket a little extra change. Brendan Gleeson
is blusteringly hilarious as Alastor “Mad-Eye”
Moody, the new unconventional Defense Against the Dark Arts
teacher, while Miranda Richardson is aptly persnickety
as the nosy tabloid-esque reporter Rita Skeeter. And then
there’s Ralph Fiennes, playing the Dark Lord with exquisite
maliciousness. Can’t wait to see what he’ll do
with the role in future installments.
The film is visually delightful. The three challenges are
fighting a dragon, an underwater rescue, and a run through
a magical maze. The maze brings Harry face-to-face with tongue-wiggling
Lord "No-Nose" Voldemort who needs Harry's blood
to resurrect himself. The special effects, big and small,
are impressive. Some are terrifying, such as the rebirth of
Voldemort, and some are laugh-out-loud funny. Seeing Draco
get turned into a ferret by Mad-Eye Moody, for example, was
a hit with young viewers.
The scenes in which Harry, Ron and Hermione must negotiate
the grown-up world of the Hogwarts Yule Ball work just as
well as the scenes involving invisibility cloaks, flying coaches
and the unforgivable curses which become a key to solving
the riddle of the conspiracy within these magical walls of
knowledge. The action is non stop with a few cliff hanging
suspense scenes and time defying spells. Time itself is defied
and you won’t believe you sat through almost three hours
of cinema. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to children
of all ages.
Grade: A
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