Cuaron

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2004)

Give Alfonso Cuarón some decent material and he could be a major director. The chief pleasure to be derived from the new Harry Potter is his assured handling of the camera. Often the scenes are single shots: the movement is achieved by panning in and out, including different things in the frame. Harry loses consciousness a lot in this instalment. Cuarón fixes on irises  where a pinpoint in blackness widens into a full image - as the best way to communicate his coming to. The device is used repeatedly: the scenes unfold like the turning pages of a fairy tale. The colour too is great. The images are bleached white or yellow, like the pages of an aged storybook. This visual finesse got me excited all on its own: it was such a relief after Harry's previous, lumbering outings.
Hogwarts is still a bore. Going to class with Harry and pals, I was only reminded of how impatient I felt at school. There are assuredly more pyrotechnics at Hogwarts  the closest I got to magic was a Bunsen burner  but there is still the dreary whiff of routine. The film lingers too long on these scenes. The main thrust of the story concerns the escaped prisoner of the title, who  it is darkly whispered  murdered Harry's parents. Now he is coming after Harry. He is pursued by his gaolers  creepy wraiths put together out of ragged black cloth and long talons. The film recovers its footing in its final third, when these elements come together. Time loops  Harry has an opportunity to live through an experience twice. It suggests a Choose Your Own Adventure story  more than one narrative path is available to the reader. Here the paths are cumulative  on his second pass, Harry can see himself going through the experience the first time. It has a pleasing metaphysical buzz, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
There is a lot of incidental pleasure to be had from the performances. As Professor Snape, Alan Rickman is so monumentally serious  and deep voiced  that everything he intones provokes a fit of giggles. He swoops about in his black cape, his face set and grim. Daniel Radcliffe has a limited range of expressions  he grimaces an awful lot. He is constantly shown up by his fellow cadets. With his ruddy complexion and oversize cartoon features, Ron (Rupert Grint) has a marvellous hangdog face  the boy who always takes an extra half-second to get the joke. He and Hermione (Emma Watson)  now a budding adolescent  are an expert double act, the squabbling couple who do not yet realise they are in love.