Surprise surprise

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2002)

By the 2000 Sidney Olympics, my country of Portugal had a contestant in the shooting class. It is a sport that requires a lot of concentration and clod blood. So, the athlete has to keep calm. In the TV I saw him shooting and looking down between shots. But he wasn't just looking down. He was reading "Harry Potter". When I was confronted with the opening of this movie, I wasn't really interested, thought it was too childish. But thenm there had to be a reason why the books appealed to children, adults, everyone. So when inevitably I saw this one, the result was an instant feeling of empathy towards it. I can only say that if they are trying to charm the viewer, if they are trying to involve him in the movie's sheer magic, they succeeded all the way. Now I understand why this one has so many fans. It is simply irresistible. It gives you something that you always search for when you go watch a movie - the power to be in another place for a few hours. And the movie delivers this and many more: all the production values are epic and magnificent, the John Williams score being a sort of conductor of all the emotions you experience when seeing this. The definition of movie magic doesn't come any closer than this! This movie makes you a child again, and thus it is unmissable.