Director David Yates has been at the reigns of the Harry Potter series since 2007’s Order of the Phoenix, and for my money has been responsible for the drastic rise in quality the movies have experienced since then. Matching the increasingly mature themes found in Rowling later books, the Yates films have featured chilling visuals, gripping action, and have facilitated the evolution of stars Radcliffe, Watson and Grint from cringe-worthy children reading scripts to genuine dramatic performers. With last year’s Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Yates delivered far and above the best film of the lot, scored Academy Award nominations for the pictures beautiful cinematography and visual effects, and set the stage for the long awaited two part finale: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
While this franchise has long since departed from the wheelhouse of children’s movies, Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the film that moves the series into truly adult terrain. From the opening scene, the story dives headfirst into allegories of fascism, racism and oppression, as our heroes find themselves out of school and on the run, pursued by a hostile Ministry of Magic now controlled by the malevolent forces of the evil Lord Voldemort. The films dark and haunting composition, every bit as evocative as the previous film, is punctuated by moments of frantic and often brutal action. Yates also never shies away from depicting the consequences of the violence, leading to some very upsetting and effective moments of bloodshed.
The biggest problem with Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the same problem that plagued the first half of the book. Without the iconic setting that is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the stories pacing, especially after the opening act, is extremely uneven. Character spend a large amount of time camping in the woods, moving formulaically from one location to another as they attempt to locate and destroy the remaining fragments of Voldemort’s soul. The absence of Hogwarts also means that the screen-time of some of the franchises best actors gets seriously culled; Alan Rickman (Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) and Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye) only get about a dozen lines between them, and Maggie Smith’s delightfully stern Professor McGonagall doesn’t appear at all.
However, whilst much of the adult cast gets short shrift, the three young leads – now adults themselves – do marvelous work carrying what is now the seventh multi-million dollar film to rest on their shoulders. In the early films it was the performances of the child actors that really held the series back, but in the more recent entries, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have all come into their own. The friendship between the central trio is the corner-stone on which the entire saga is based, and although some of the conflicts that arise seem a little repetitive after seven films, the performances have never been stronger.Indeed, some of the movies best moments include an early sequence in which Hermione erasers herself from her parent’s memories, and a devastating scene where Ron innermost fears, so often overlooked by the franchises need for him to serve as comic relief, are laid bare. Watson and Grint are both spectacular in these moments, and despite the misgivings I felt as ten year old watching Philosophers’ Stone, Daniel Radcliffe now embodies Harry Potter every bit as much as Elijah Wood embodies Frodo Baggins, or Mark Hamill embodies Luke Skywalker. The only disappointment when it came to the young stars was that Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) was not given enough time on screen, a real shame given his fantastic performance in Half-Blood Prince.
Of course the other big complaint I have of Deathly Hallows Part 1 is that it has no real ending. While each of the previous entries have told a largely self-contained story, this film feels distinctly incomplete. At least in the novel, the lagging middle chapters were setting up for a pay-off that we would reach by the end of the book, but here we are torn from the story at a fairly derivative mid-point, asked to be content with an abrupt and lukewarm cliffhanger that left me feeling quietly unsatisfied. That being said, there is no way that this book could have been condensed into one film while still delivering either the subtler moments I have praised or the plot points that the fans demand.
While the ending of Half-Blood Prince prepared us for an epic final showdown, Deathly Hallows Part 1 essentially continues that same preparation. This is only half a film, and in that regard it is not as strong as either of Yates’ previous efforts. Ultimately, Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a movie doomed to be judged on what it doesn’t offer: an ending. What it does offer however is more than enough to recommend it: three excellent central performances, several thrilling action sequences, wonderfully sinister sensibilities, and a guarantee that Yates and company will have the running time and the budget to pull out all the stops on Part 2, and deliver a conclusion that is every bit as satisfying, brooding and operatic as this series deserves.
Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows Part 1 is in cinemas now.
