Great Old-Fashioned Magical Children's Fantasy

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2005)

An orphan is amazed to discover the existence of a secret world of magic when he is whisked away to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. There he makes both friends and enemies amongst the pupils and teachers, develops his magical powers and confronts his destiny against the evil spirit which killed his parents and threatens to destroy the harmony of the magic realm.
J.K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter books have achieved the near-impossible - they are bonafide modern-day children's classics. The movie of the first book is equally magical, telling a charming, funny, scary and mysterious tale with tremendous panache. Besides the wonderful story, the movie's prime asset is its terrific cast of familiar British actors hamming it up as the School staff. Particularly good are Coltrane as the school's giant groundskeeper Hagrid ("Oi shouldn't-a said that ... "), a fine understated performance by Harris as headmaster Professor Dumbledore, Rickman as the weaselly yet intriguing Professor Snape, Bradley as the seriously creepy caretaker Filch, and a nifty cameo by John Hurt as a sagely wandmaker. The kids (Radcliffe, Grint, Watson & Felton) are all tremendous - director Columbus has managed to make their performances very natural yet maintain the wondrous fantasy element so important to the story. This is what makes the movie work so well, typified by the journey to Hogwarts sequence, which starts out in a slightly-altered version of reality (platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station) and moves into fully-fledged fantasy (the children glide on lantern-lit canoes towards a monstrous Gothic castle floating in the darkness ahead of them). As with all good escapist writing the characters are rooted in reality and you care about them, so that you can enjoy the mythic adventure but still respond to the story emotionally. A beautifully subtle score by John Williams, fantastic production design work by Stuart Craig (the realisation of Hogwarts through a combination of sets, locations and effects is simply brilliant) and beautiful photography by John Seale all serve to make the movie look and sound gorgeous. I love the way the film balances its themes of wonder and friendship with plenty of good old-fashioned scares - in particular, the sequence with the giant troll loose in the school and the forest scene where He Who Must Not Be Named makes his first appearance are fabulously frightening moments. This is a funny, delightful, quintessentially British classic children's movie.