Director David Yates does a fine job of moving past the travesty that was Goblet of Fire. Yates' work on this film recalls the strengths of Alfonso Cuaron's film, while taking a darkly psychological approach to the fifth installment in the series. The opening shot with the camera streaking past the grass and showing a lonely Harry looking longingly on a mother with her children is almost reassuring; we're in the hands of a director who has some sense of style. There are also pleasing nods to the third film; like in Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry finds himself retreating to his room in anger, slamming the walls furiously, and then mildly soothed by the photograph of his parents. And, like in Azkaban, the freedom of magic is realized as Harry flies into the skies and away from the Dursleys. The flight sequence where the Order members and Harry ride brooms from Privet Drive to Sirius Black's house is grandly joyous and magnificently contrasted against the depression and ennui Harry felt trapped with his uncle and aunt.
While Yates doesn't give magic the same motifs as Cuaron, where magic allowed wizards to control their environment remotely, Yates still provides us with some striking images. The sight of a normal, everyday set of townhouses, between which 12 Grimmauld Place springs into existence nicely frames the Wizarding World as being a hidden part of the everyday and commonplace. The shot of Harry and Mr. Weasley stepping into a phone booth and descending into the Ministry of Magic is also amusing and understated. Like Cuaron, Yates takes the time to lead us from the mundane to the extraordinary.
The true strength of this film is that director Yates and screenwriter Michael Goldenberg do a spectacular job of finding a central theme and journey for the film and making sure that every single scene is relevant. The entire film is focused on Harry's isolation and alienation following Goblet of Fire. Clips of the Newell travesty haunt Harry's dreams, and the opening scene shows Harry longing at children and a mother playing in a park. Radcliffe seems to effortlessly convey Harry's sense of loss; there's almost a sense of hunger in his eyes as he looks at the life he's never known.
Harry's sense of isolation deepens with each progressive scene. We learn that Ron and Hermione left him without news at the Dursleys. And then we see Harry pass through the halls and rooms of the Ministry of Magic; the splendor of the magical decorations and the masses of wizards is undercut by newspaper headlines showing that Harry and his hero Dumbledore are regarded as dangerous troublemakers by the Wizarding World. This point is further hammered home when Harry is put on trial for a misdemeanor and is stunned to learn the Wizarding World is against him and eager to see him locked up on trumped up charges. Harry is seen as dangerous and disturbed. This is the movie Chamber of Secrets failed to be.
As the film progresses, the scenes continue highlight Harry's segregation from the other students, and the sense that Harry even wants to be alone. He runs from Ron and Hermione when they try to comfort him, he escapes to Hagrid's hut, even though he knows Hagrid isn't there. He runs into the Forbidden Forest, and finds another outcast, Luna Lovegood, who tells him that his sense of loneliness is precisely what Lord Voldemort wants him to feel. And Harry returns to join his friends at breakfast, only to learn of various restrictive school regulations that will separate Harry from the wisdom of his teachers. Yates and Goldenberg do a marvellous job of showing how the Wizarding World is making Harry run from his classmates, away from his friends, and end up abandoned and alone. These scenes in the film make fantastic use of cinematic space, showing wide open frames by Hagrid's hut and in the forest, occupied only by Harry, until Luna appears.
And then the film executes an almost perfect sequence of scenes where Harry chooses to fight back. He follows Hermione's suggestion that he teach the students how to fight Dark Magic; he chooses to act in the interests of finding what allies and comrades he can, and seeing them united under the flag of Dumbledore's Army. He fights desperately to try to convince himself that he isn't on his own, trying to bring together the strength and goodwill of all his friends. And he's almost crushed entirely, as the Ministry's lapdog, Professor Umbridge, posted at Hogwarts, shows that her regime and resources are able to tear apart Dumbledore's Army, expel Dumbledore from the campus, and make it too dangerous for the students to continue their little school club any longer.
The film has to be selective with what it can fit from the book into its running length, and Yates and Goldenberg achieve what Newell and Columbus failed to do. Yates and Goldenberg find an emotional journey for Harry and follow him for the duration. At this point, Harry's journey seems to have ended in defeat, and then immediately after Harry expresses the bitter desire to forsake friendship and go it alone, he's confronted with Hagrid, having returned with his half-brother in tow. Hagrid's brother, Grawp, is a wild giant, uncivilized, barely capable of speech, seemingly impossible to integrate into society.
"It's company he'll be needing," Hagrid says, anticipating being fired from the school now that Dumbledore's gone, looking hopefully at Ron, Hermione and Harry, hoping they'll be there for his half-brother. From that, the film leads into an terrifying battle between a force of dark wizards and six inexperienced teenagers. And in the climax, as Voldemort invades Harry's mind and his memories, Harry finds that his bonds with his comrades and his love for Sirius Black are forces that repel Voldemort and protect Harry's mind, body and soul from Voldemort's evil.
"You're the weak one," Harry whispers, expelling Voldemort from his mind. "And you'll never know love -- or friendship -- and I feel sorry for you." And with this, Harry sets aside his desire for isolation and segregation, and embraces the knowledge that it is through solidarity and true and loyal friends that he will defeat Voldemort. The script does a marvellous job of creating a sequence of scenes that end in this triumphant victory of self, and the final image of the film is Harry surrounded by his classmates. Order of the Phoenix is the only film in the series to be scripted by Michael Goldenberg, and Goldenberg's grasp of characterization, progressing tension and payoff is perfectly matched with David Yates' moody direction.
At this point, the best films of the Harry Potter series were the third and fifth films, because both of these films had creative forces behind them who appreciated the strengths of the source material and grasped how to render these strengths on film. While Prisoner of Azkaban was scripted by Steve Kloves, the script was clearly reworked to suit Alfonso Cuaron's preferences for visual splendor, character chemistry and fast-paced action as opposed to exposition and dialogue. While Kloves' lackluster talents as a screenwriter remain in evidence, they were mostly swept away thanks to Cuaron's ability to play up the appeal of his Trio of actors, along with Cuaron's skill in rendering a world of magic.
Cuaron also remains the only director who understood Dumbledore, giving us a funny, mysterious, wise and deeply caring schoolmaster who gave advice in oblique terms. Cuaron's influence in Michael Gambon's performance is clear. Gambon, under Mike Newell, made the character ridiculously irritable and aggressive in the fourth movie, and under David Yates, Gambon delivered a Dumbledore with authority and presence, but devoid of warmth, wit or humour. I haven't read Goldenberg's script, but nothing seen onscreen makes it necessary for Gambon to read his lines without the mischief or fun he exhibited in the third film. Clearly, Yates' grasp of the characters was weak. However, Michael Goldenberg's excellent scripting and sense of drama made up for Yates' failings, and gave Yates the space to create a cinematic world that reflected Harry's emotional turmoil.
At this point, the future once again looked bright. Goldenberg would not be scripting the sixth Harry Potter film, but Yates' presence on the project suggested the same quality of Order of the Phoenix would be retained in Half-Blood Prince. Unfortunately, the next film to follow would quickly reveal how much Goldenberg brought to the series, and how his absence would be immediately obvious...
No comments:
Post a Comment