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Daniel Radcliffe discovers dark goings on in the bowels of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron
Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart),
John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Christian
Coulson (Tom Riddle), Richard Griffiths (Vernon Dusley), Richard Harris (Albus
Dumbledore), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Miriam Margolyes (Professor Snout),
Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Fiona Shaw (Petrunia Dursley), Maggie Smith
(Minerva McGonagall), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley), Mark Williams (Arthur
Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy),
David Bradley (Argus Filch), Toby Jones (Dobby), Gemma Jones (Madam
Pomfrey), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom),
Julian Glover (Aragog)
Another movie, and time for another everyday school year for
Harry and friends: classes, exams, sports days and saving the entire population
of the school from a grisly death. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it
right? So welcome to the second Harry Potter film, that mixes the fun of flying cars and tricky elves with giant spiders and ferocious snakes.
Chris Columbus and team went virtually straight from the
first film into making this one, and it’s pretty clear they had learned a lot
from the last one. Sure, Columbus is still a safe pair of hands rather than an inspired
director, but there is a bit more flair from cast and crew here. It also
manages to look a lot less like a primary colour explosion or an illustrated
version of the book, and more like a piece of film-making. Maybe this can be
attributed to new cinematographer Roger Pratt, who gives the film a far more
imaginative palette of darks blacks mixed with beautiful core colours (no
surprise he returned to shoot Goblet of
Fire). In addition, both design and costumes are far more adult and less
Dickensian-robey than I remembered (though there’s still a way to go until we
get to the steampunk 50s look of Prisoner
of Azkaban that would dominate the rest of the films).
It also helps that the introduction to the wizarding world was
covered so well in the first film. In fact, this is the last film where anyone
felt it necessary to shoe-horn recaps into the dialogue, reminding us of who
(and what) everything is. A particular moment of irritance for me is the first
entry of Dumbledore and McGonagall: met with Harry breathlessly saying their
names – just in case you were one of those people who didn’t contribute to the $1billion
the first film made worldwide, or who hadn’t read any of the books by this
point.
Anyway, Columbus got the principles out of the way in the
first film so he could focus a bit more on this slightly darker, more developed
story (just as Rowling was able to do in the books). The mystery of the Chamber
of Secrets is more compelling than that around the Philosopher’s Stone in Potter’s
first outing, and this is the film where we properly meet the series antagonist
Voldemort – here played with a smarmy, casual cruelty by Christian Coulsen
(it’s a shame this didn’t lead to bigger things for Coulsen). Radcliffe gets
the chance to get his teeth into a decent final confrontation – and also the
series’ first big action set-piece, quite well-shot with a creepy menace – as
he takes on a basilisk.
In fact Radcliffe is much stronger in this movie – more
relaxed, more confident and embracing Harry’s essential decency and sense of
honour (the qualities that are always duller to play as an actor). He’s still
struggling a bit at the moments that call for real emotion – but he does very
well here indeed. Most importantly, you believe him and everything he does –
which is quite something for a child actor to accomplish.
He gets more depth and range to play with than Rupert Grint
who was already being shoehorned into being gurning comic relief. There are few
faces Grint isn’t asked to pull in this movie – and get used to that sad-sack
downward grin, or the teeth-clench of terror, because these are going to become
major weapons in his arsenal. Watson doesn’t actually get a lot in this movie,
but even by this point it was becoming clear that she was pretty much a perfect
fit for the character.
The series also confirmed it had great roles for the cream
of British acting – and that it was going to be a fine pension plan for most of
Equity. Jason Isaacs plays the wicked Lucius Malfoy with relish and a scowling,
patrician pride – no wonder he became not only a regular in the series, but one
of its champions. He’s very good here indeed, as is other new addition Mark
Williams, a perfectly charming shambolic dad as Arthur Weasley.
The show however is carried off by Kenneth Branagh as
Gilderoy Lockhart. Branagh offers a performance close to of self-parody of his
public perception, as a swaggering self-promoter, a preening egotist who can’t
help but brag about his (almost non-existent) achievements and accomplishments.
Branagh is deliriously funny as Lockhart, not only getting a lion’s share of
the best scenes, but also bringing out some delicious comic rebuttals from the
rest of the teachers – not least Rickman and Smith – who clearly can’t stand
Lockhart. It’s a great performance – cocky, old-Etonianesque, full of surface
charm and puffed up pride, but with a nasty selfish mean steak just below the
surface.
It all feels part of the generally more free and engaging
direction this film takes compared to the first one. Some of the best actors from
the first film get relegated in screentime, but it shows the greater confidence
the filmmakers have in the kids. The film really begins to introduce the ideas
of good vs evil and the principles of friendship, humanity and love that
differentiate Harry from Voldemort. Columbus isn’t quite the director to bring
all this together into an epic vision, but he is good enough to deal the cards
effectively. He gives it enough pace and shine so that we are never bored, though
we’re also never wowed.
Despite the increased darkness and greater emotional depth, Columbus
never loses track of the sense that he is making a family entertainment. He may
still not be able to bring an artistic flourish to events, but he balances the
light and dark very well. Not least the fact that the racism under the surface
of the wizarding world emerges here. In the first film Voldemort alone was the villain,
but in this one we first hear the term “mud blood” bandied about to describe
Muggle-borns. We also find out that the wizarding world has its own slave class
in elves (given a sometimes irritating Jar-Jar Binks-lite face by Dobby, a character
with far more appeal to the kids than the parents). These are complex ideas –
and all part of the world becoming richer.
Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets is still in the lower tier of Harry Potter films, but it’s a significant step-up from the first
film. Visually it’s richer and more interesting. The stakes are higher, the
themes deeper and more intriguing. It’s still very much a children’s film, and it
still inclines towards being an over-faithful adaptation – it’s a bum-numbing 2
hours and 40 minutes so keen is it to not leave anything out – but this has far
stronger material in it than the first film, and is a sure sign that this
series was building a foundation it could flourish from.
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