Art-house Potter

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2004)

This latest Harry potter film is the first (and last) film to be directed by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron. He is also the films most striking (but by no means greatest) flaw. Being his big chance to break into Hollywood (and feeling the need to break out of Columbus' shadow) he overdoes the directing of this film so dramatically that you at times feel you are watching the world's mos expensive student film. One minute into the film he brings in the Dogma 95 -style hand-held camera. And throughout the film he sticks in shrunken heads (yes Alfonso, we know you are from Central America, but you ARE aware that this takes place in Britain aren't you?). THREE times we are treated to swooping shots of birds flying though the air, leaves falling off the trees etc. Like Potter himself, it felt like Cuaron was an eager adolescent trying to show off what he could do. On top of that, the architecture of Hogwarts itself was filled with freudian symbolism. Sure. In an adult movie this would be great - Cuaron should do more of those. But this is completely out of tone with the rest of the Harry Potter universe. A good (professionalistic) director knows his genre and sticks to it. This felt a bit like the Tom and Jerry episodes from the 70's where they ruined it with all kinds of modernistic, artsy-fartsy details. For all his technical show-offing, Cuaron fails to ever bring genuine suspense to the story. He simply makes it a bit more depressing and feels satisfied with that.
While there is a new director, it is striking that they didn't see fit to replace the screenwriter Steve Kloves. His truly uninspiring, and unimaginative paint-by-numbers adaptation of the books worked acceptably in the first films, since the books were almost like screenplays themselves. Yet in this film he leaves out the most important points in the story - and misses some perfect opportunities to add depth to the storytelling with the flashbacks, and dreams abundant in the books. And the humor and self-irony that characterized the books is completely absent here. One glimpse of imagination, and the only truly outstanding feat of the movie, is the cinematography. Micheal Seresin does his best to make up with visual style where the story lacks. Unfortunately, this is not enough. Sad, since this could have been the most creative and deep of the films. Instead it just seems like a less fun version of the same thing.