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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire November 20, 2005 |
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Wide-eyed, overjoyed, and juiced on the adrenaline of the Quidditch World Cup, 14-year old Harry Potter looks at his friends, having an equally good time, and ecstatically proclaims, “I love magic.” It’s a rare moment of excitement born out of happiness in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, for our famed young wizard is about to go through a most grueling, troubling, exhausting, emotionally taxing, utterly dangerous year at Hogwarts that will find him dealing with everything from the return of his arch nemesis, a jealous best friend, an early teenage crush, strange new teachers, and most importantly to the maturation of the character, an all too real mortality within his outer circle of friends. It is a dark world, this, and Harry, so happy during that enormous World Cup match before Lord Voldemort shows up, by way of his minions and their skeleton-and-snake Dark Mark in the sky, who has faced his fair share of troubles in the three previous films, has no idea what’s in store for him and his friends during their fourth year of wizardry school, facing said world of dark arts, Death Eaters, torture spells and fire breathing dragons with all the resolve and maturity of somebody who, every year, has someone, or something, out to kill him. Sure, Harry loves magic when it’s channeled through a ratty old boot that transports him through thin air to the World Cup, or when a special root allows him the gills and fishy appendages to breath and swim underwater for over an hour, but not so much, later on, when a cursed trophy brings him to a cemetery to face his hated enemy, Voldemort, the villain who killed Harry’s parents, killed his friend Cedric, and aims, ever so lustily, to kill him, by any means, especially magic, possible. The theme of this most recent installment in the highly successful filmed adaptations of J.K. Rowling's famous books is change, and much like year three, which saw Harry and his friends’ introduction into adolescence, and middle school, the pressures of growth, compounded with the dangers of their wizardry world, makes for change of the rapidly hectic variety. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is now 14 and entering a strange time of life; his best friend Ron (Rupert Grint) has an unspoken crush on the smart, and quickly progressing heroine Hermione (Emma Watson), his new professor against the Dark Arts, the creepy Mad Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) seems to be taking an unusual interest in his well being, there are rumblings that his nightmares of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, in a wickedly scary cameo) may be coming true, he’s been chosen, mysteriously, to compete in the prestigious, yet insanely difficult Tri-Wizard Tournament by the titular goblet, and, regrettably, the girl he has a crush on already has a date to the winter ball. Poor Harry, everything looked so nice and fun during that opening Quidditch match, but as things deteriorate, and the pressures of the tournament, mixed with the general angst of a growing body (not to mention the trouble of finding a date to your first gala ball), moments of triumph become taxed with feelings of doubt, regret, sadness, and burden; burden of being the most famous 14-year-old wizard in your school, when all you want, really, is a quiet year of study, to hang out with your friends, and maybe, as non-threatening excitement, some harmless broom flying here and there. Instead, Potter has to deal with dragons, deadly mermaids, spooked hedge mazes, and a competition that would make the Iron Man Triathalon look like a stroll on the beach, and for our benefit, it’s all gloriously entertaining, in a fantastical, escapist kind of way, the best kind of way, when you’re dealing in adventure, wizardry, moody atmosphere, and spellbinding spooks. There is much to admire about “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, directed by British vet Mike Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”); the story is superb, the special effects are eye-popping, the adventure of the tournament, complete with the most frightening dragons since ‘Return of the King’, is exciting, and the fantasy of a school set entirely in a weird world of wands, witches, and wizards is wonderful, but what impresses the most about the film is the strength of characterization, and how, four films deep, the characters continue to charm, and the actors continue to find ways of making their respective characters fresh and true to the source material. Radcliffe, letting Harry’s hair down, is aging perfectly into the boy wizard’s increasingly dangerous story lines, and Rupert Grint brings a good slant of jealousy (of Harry’s tournament bid, as well as Hermione’s schoolgirl crush on tournament stud Viktor Krum), and vulnerability to Ron’s second banana, but of the teen actors, it’s Emma Watson as Hermione who steals the show, and rightfully so, for it’s Hermione that is the most mature, level headed, and ambitious character, dealing with Harry and Ron’s bumbling like a surrogate mother, rather than a potential love interest. Harry has his glorious moments, such as his broomstick battle with a vicious Hungarian Horn Tail Dragon (the film’s most spectacular sequence), and Ron is good comic relief, but the big set piece is the school ball, and Watson, adorable and heartbreaking, shines as Hermione chastises Ron and his jealousy for ruining what should be one of a girl’s most cherished memories, her first school dance. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is filled with adventure, danger, and thrills, but what makes it one of the year’s best fantasy epics are the characters, and with performances and characterizations like this, it’s that rarest of cinematic rarities – a series that gets better and better, as the characters get older, wiser, and more familiar. Harry loves magic, when it’s good to him, and we love the magic of Harry, because recently, the past two years anyway, it’s been really good to us. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is playing at the Movie-Plex 59. by Adam Suraf
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