A Very Faithful Adaptation That Is Rarely Seen In This Era

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2005)

After viewing this movie in theaters, after all of the speculation and guessing, I must say the one and a half year wait was well worth it. From the beginning of this movie, from the thundering scores of the brilliant Patrick Doyle, to the rich, dark scenery, I knew this was a completely different Harry Potter film.
As it opens with a very creepy nightmare, so faced paced it seemed almost surreal, but still frightening, the juicer part of the movie begins. Now, I am not going to go and explain the entire plot, for most all of you have viewed it, but I am going to point out all of the parts that make this movie very special.
First of all, the acting in this film is top notch. My personal favorite was the brilliantly insane Mad-Eye Moody portrayed flawlessly by the talented Brendan Gleeson. He was the one that stole the show for me, although I know everyone is buzzing about Ralph Fiennes's characterization of the warped, malevolent Lord Voldemort. To me, his performance didn't stick out very much, but perhaps I was still getting over the shock of his gruesome appearance.
My favorite actress to enter the Harry Potter series is the endlessly capable Miranda Richardson, whose Rita Skeeter is so seductively annoying you just want to smack her. Pity she has such little screen time, but I think they did a very good job of jamming her in every scene possible. The second female I thoroughly enjoyed was the gut busting performance by Shirley Henderson as Myrtle who is moaning for a new, different reason. The new kids on Potter Street, the champions, were all in all very good, especially Cedric Diggory and his father, who gave a very raw, tear jerking performance near the end. More mentions of newcomers include Roger Llyod-Pack, as Barty Crouch, who I found to be an interesting depiction of such a big politician (Has he gone through puberty yet? He's like a soprano!), and his son, played as a complete madman by David Tennant. These two characters have so many layers in the book; I pitied Barty Jr. soooooo much. He was such a neglected child, and his father was a emotionless hack. But in the film, they skim this over, which was what I found most disappointing, the lack of humanity which is depicted so well in the novels.
Moving on to the original actors, boy is the trio good! Daniel Radcliffe who had a fair few very pathetic scenes in the past, is really shaping up to be an able actor. Rupert Grint is the most natural child actor I have seen for a very long time. (I've seen a lot, I'm in the theater industry.) Emma Watson is excellent, but is sometimes too dramatic where it is unnecessary, such as the quivering voice in DADA. The twins are finally completely canon, which makes adds one missing star to my review. The adult cast is fabulous; Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman were born for these roles. Timothy Spall is very frightening in his role, almost more so than Lord Voldemort, and Sirius was a succinct, passable cameo by Gary Oldman. Some hilarious scenes with Robbie Coltrane and the very talented Frances De La Tour, one of the two perfectly cast headmasters beside one not so perfectly cast one. So, while we're on the subject of casting headmasters, WHO HIRED Micheal GAMBON? A very talented actor, but portrayed very wrongly. I don't mind him screaming "HARRY POTTER!" at the top of his voice, but please, put some personality into it, buddy! I disliked his scenes very much.
Why am I blaming him? Because the excellent screenplay by Steve Kloves didn't mess up any other characters. Mike Newell captures the essence of all of the other actors. It must be him. I say, please try to put back that PoA twinkle Mike!
All in all, this is the best possible job I think they could have done with a two and a half hour movie. Not everything could make it, and this is the first one where I thought the only things thrown away were the unnecessary plot lines. Plenty of action, romance, and comedy make this the ultimate Harry Potter movie. Mike Newell put a lot of heart into it, you can tell. The Britishness really shows, so I am happy to hear there is another Brit coming for the fifth. Harry Potter has grown up, and so is the quality of the films. 10/10