Religion and Spirituality lenses (and more)

It’s weird – I loved Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night. I did. I thought the special effects were thrilling: they really did the book justice. I thought the acting of most of the cast superb. I especially felt that Alan Rickman (Snape), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), and Jim Broadbent (Professor Horace Slughorn) were fantastic. Ron and Hermione played so well, one forgot they were acting. Unfortunately I can’t say the same of Harry Potter himself.

Perhaps it’s simply that the scene play for this movie downplays Harry Potter’s heroics and initiative. He seems at times hardly brave, and foolish to boot. In this movie he is not the popular Quiditch captain: he needs Ginny to get his team to listen. He’s not the one who actively kisses Ginny, she takes the initiative. He does not save Dumbledore by either throwing water over his face or getting them brooms. He doesn’t take charge of protecting the castle. He doesn’t even help convince Slughorn that Hogwarts is safe – it’s Potter’s fame alone that brings the potions master back.

Daniel Radcliffe was convincing in the romantic scenes – starting with the muggle waitress, which I thought a very funny scene. But also in his shyness with Ginny – a cute wimp, but convincing. Did they really have to take the bravery out of Harry Potter? What’s left is the impulsive teenager who goes after the death eaters when Dumbledore is killed. Alright, that’s sort of brave too, but really it’s also simply foolish. It makes sense what Hermione says at the end: that he’s sometimes a goof ball.

While I’m at it – there’s more downplaying of characters. Dumbledore doesn’t realize Hermione isn’t Harry’s love – whereas in book 7 we get to see just how omniscient Dumbledore really is, and it’s amazing. But all in all, I thought Michael Gambon a convincing Dumbledore.

But there is one series of scene Daniel Radcliffe plays superbly – it’s when Harry takes the liquid luck potion and becomes insanely confident (and it somehow works). The fun shines off when he’s watching Hagrid and Slughorn get drunk together, when he tells Slughorn he understand that he’s hiding from his colleague. Only when it gets serious does he miss the sweet spot: when he tells Slughorn to ‘be brave like my mother’. Again, like in most serious scenes, not quite convincing.

Perhaps the best acting in this movie was in the second row characters. I loved how Tom Felton portrayed Draco’s ambivalence. Alan Rickman as Snape was genius. There are hints in the movie about Snape’s true loyalty that aren’t in book 6, but they fit the character. Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley was funny and true to the book. I liked that even at the end of the movie it isn’t really clear if Hermione and Ron are together. Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange is genius too. She’s portrayed as a mad, dangerous psychopath. It’s so believable.

Part of the strength of the whole series is that aside from the magic, the details are so very like our ordinary world. Bellatrix having fun destroying the dining hall at Hogwarts may not be in the book, but you could easily imagine that’s what you would do if you were mad and violent and could do magic.

It’s striking how old both Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall and Michael Gambon as Professor Albus Dumbledore look. I mean they are old – perhaps it’s just that I’m not used to such active characters played by people their age. However it sometimes looks as though they were aged up a bit too.

All in all, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a romantic, scary, funny movie that takes you on an emotional roller coaster. The special effects team went all out. A must see.