MOVIE REVIEW: 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'


From today's Oregonian ...



If fans are going to have one beef with "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," it's probably this: The movie is set in the calm between storms.

In the fourth film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) was finally resurrected in all his noseless cackling glory. And (without spoiling anything) everything goes straight to heck in the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

But in this fifth story, our wizard hero Harry spends a lot of time brooding over what happened in Chapter Four -- and no one believes him when he says things are, in fact, about to go straight to heck. This puts "Order of the Phoenix" in a difficult in-between place, as author J.K. Rowling lines up her dramatic chess pieces and builds a sense of dread.

Fortunately, the filmmakers (director David Yates and scenarist Michael Goldenberg) understand this, and respond by focusing on Rowling's characters (and small moments between them) to a degree that's unprecedented in the movie series. With its long, character-driven setup and gleefully loopy ending, "Order of the Phoenix" is a strangely relaxed and frequently funny installment. To my thinking, it stands right behind "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" as the best in the movie series.

The story of "Phoenix" is basically J.K. Rowling's "While England Slept." Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is glowering in a bath of teenage hormones in the suburbs between semesters at Hogwarts. Suddenly, he and his bullying cousin (Harry Melling) are attacked by ghostly Dementor agents of Voldemort.

From there, in a nice amplification of teen angst, young Mr. Potter spends much of the film alienated from everyone he knows. First, the Ministry of Magic refuses to believe Harry's warnings about Voldemort. Then they lambaste him in the press, earning Harry the scorn of his classmates. Headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) assiduously avoids him. And then the Ministry imposes on Hogwarts a new Defense of the Dark Arts instructor, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) -- a prim and chirpy sadist who's determined to take the magic out of teaching magic.

In a cast that's now hilariously unwieldy with fine British acting talent, Staunton still stands out: She's phenomenal as Umbridge, delivering every sing-song line with a smile and barely contained menace. As she takes over the school as a sort of special investigator/grand inquisitor -- issuing edict after edict and administering truth serum and torture to her charges in an office full of tea saucers -- "Phoenix" adds mild political satire to its usual twist on Dickensian boarding-school mores.

Another great new character is spacey student Luna Lovegood, played by newcomer Evanna Lynch. It's worth noting that before winning this role, Lynch was a hardcore "Potter" fan, to the degree that she made parts of her own costume. Lynch getting this role is a bit like a hardcore "Star Wars" fan being cast as R2-D2, and it's delightful to report that she gives one of the movie's most vivid performances.

Yates and Goldenberg do a great job condensing and streamling Rowling's Bible-sized novel into a smooth movie narrative. Fans of the books will miss the deletion of any and all Quidditch subplots and quite a bit of cool stuff involving Harry's pal Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), but for the most part, movie fans won't. "Phoenix" feels quite a bit less clunky than "Goblet of Fire," which lurched between scenes and moods.

Yates comes from TV, and he spends a decent amount of time on small moments between Harry, Ron and Hermione (Emma Watson, acting a little less with her eyebrows than usual). The movie throws away many of its best special effects, and breathes with little character bits.

However -- and this is, believe it or not, a minor complaint -- they do rush the ending.

A lot of "Phoenix" revolves around secret societies preparing for battle, in some cases under the nose of the increasingly hysterical Umbridge. And when that magical skirmish finally happens, it's spectacular but too brief -- a great deal briefer than in the book, actually. It also takes place in shiny black sets, and when those sets are combined with neon-colored magic bolts, the whole thing looks like it should be directed by Russell Mulcahy and scored by Queen.

But I digress. On balance, the filmmakers do a terrific job with one of the weaker stories. It's welcome news that Yates is coming back for one of the stronger ones; he's set to direct "Half-Blood Prince."
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B; 138 minutes; rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.

Harry still has magic (The Oregonian, July 11, 2007)

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Posted: Wed - July 11, 2007 at 11:43 AM        

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