Blogorium Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

(editor's note: this review forgoes a synopsis, in the supposition that people reading a review of the seventh Harry Potter film have likely already seen the first six and have or plan to read the final book before the eighth film is released this summer. It also contains minor spoilers.)

There's really only one problem with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and it comes from the end of the title. Even at two and a half hours, after dropping as little as humanly possible from J.K. Rowling's final Potter novel, what we're looking at is half a story. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows doesn't so much end as it does trail off with an ellipsis, a promise that "we're going to finish this, you know we're going to finish this, so bear with us that this doesn't exactly close thematically, narratively, or cinematically."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 ends very much the same way a popular television show would close out its season: the main characters in the midst of emotional catharsis, the story having recently introduced a heretofore unseen twist (in this case, what The Deathly Hallows are), and the villain discovering something that raises the stakes and significantly impacts the impending "next season." Think of season two of Lost, season three of Battlestar Galactica, season four of The X-Files or, cruelly, the never resolved second season cliffhanger of Twin Peaks. The difference here is that the Harry Potter series are films, not television, and as much as I greatly admire everything in The Deathly Hallows Part 1, its inherent lack of resolution is a caveat that can't be ignored.

With that in mind: Finally! Finally a Harry Potter movie that sticks the landing in theme AND adaptation. If it weren't for the unfortunate non-ending, this would be the perfect Harry Potter film. Even without it, director David Yates, screenwriter Steve Kloves, and the returning cast and crew nail the tone exactly. Previous Potter outings have come close: The Chamber of Secrets removed much of the "kid friendly" trappings of The Philosopher's Stone; The Prisoner of Azkaban is largely regarded as the "best" prior to Deathly Hallows, but what Alfonso Cuaron succeeded in visually shaping the world of Harry Potter, the script removed by leaving out critical elements in the story, ones that adversely affected The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince.

Personally speaking, I thought The Goblet of Fire did a better job of masking omissions than Prisoner did, and it finally introduced a serious threat to the wizarding world when Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) killed Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), a threat that moved into the background for much of Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince. It wasn't merely that Voldemort and his Death-Eaters moved into the background, remaining a threat limited mostly to the beginning and end of each film; it was that Harry could always go back to Hogwarts, under the protection of any number of wizards more powerful than he was. Even the death of Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) was softened a bit by the resolve of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) to destroy the remaining Horcruxes with help from Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson).

The Deathly Hallows sets up the stakes, the sense of impending doom, immediately: Harry watches as the Dursley's move out of Privett Drive and Hermione removes herself from her Muggle parents' memories. In an uncharacteristically grim sequence, even for the dark direction of the Potter series, Voldemort, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), and the other Death Eaters torture and kill the Muggle Studies professor from Hogwarts while plotting an impending attack on Potter and their infiltration of the Ministry of Magic.

The Order of the Phoenix, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), and the extended Weasley family - including Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy), who is marrying Bill Weasley (Domhnall Gleeson), based on a romance cut from The Half-Blood Prince - arrive to take Harry to safety, and like the book, Yates and Kloves maintain the danger of the impending Death Eater ambush. Not only does Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) still die, but Harry's owl, Hedwig, dies on camera. The tone is set immediately; no one is safe, anyone can die, and protection is no longer assured for the heroes, their families, or anyone else.

What I enjoyed so much about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the willingness to completely ignore Hogwarts and follow Harry, Ron, and Hermione in exile. The culture clash of our heroes wandering around London, completely out of touch with the "real" world, without any idea how to proceed forward in finding the Horcruxes, let alone destroy them. At every turn is a trap, often ones they barely escape - visits to the Ministry of Magic (including a brief appearance of Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge), the trip to Godric's Hollow, to the home of Xenophilius Lovegood (Rhys Ifans), and an encounter in the forest that brings them to the home of Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs).

I'd like to mention the small touches, the unspoken character moments that deepen the atmosphere - the look on Snape's face before Voldemort kills Charity Burbage (Carolyn Pickles), the frazzled Malfoys (Isaacs, Tom Felton, and Helen McCrory), no doubt a fallout from Draco's inability to kill Dumbledore, the way that Helena Bonham Carter scales back Bellatrix Lestrange, increasing her sense of menace without the over-the-top lunacy of Order of the Phoenix. Even though they barely figure into the film, Fiennes and Rickman, and Coltrane make the most of lingering glances during group scenes. Bill Nighy and Rhys Ifans make the most of two extended cameos, as does John Hurt, who hasn't been in a Harry Potter film as Mr. Ollivander since the first film (similarly, Warwick Davis switches from Professor Flitwick to return as Griphook, and Miranda Richardson has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as Rita Skeeter).

More important than any of this is the three leads: Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint, who finally have the lion's share of screen time to spend together without a major visual effects set piece to swallow them up, and they rise to the occasion. Removing Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Hogwarts also takes away the "school" subplots and allows us to focus on their interpersonal relationships. People have groused about the amount of time spent in the woods (a healthy chunk of the novel, by the way), but it's essential to really galvanize our heroes and test their bonds. As much as I've enjoyed Grint, Watson, and Radcliffe before, they really come into their own outside of the presence of so many legendary British thespians.

Yates and Kloves are comfortable enough by the seventh film to let the story move along in a less lingo-heavy, over-explanatory manner. The wand battles have accurately been likened to gun fights, many of the spells go undefined, and the story of The Deathly Hallows is told in an animated interlude, not unlike the beginning of Hellboy II. It's strange that the next-to-last entry might be the easiest film for someone unfamiliar with the series to enter on - yes, you might lose some nuance, but the story is easy to follow without feeling dumb-ed down in translation. They even add depth to Kreacher and Dobby, two semi-one note digital characters from earlier films, a feat that's likely to surprise even the most ardent defenders of the "goofy" first act of The Chamber of Secrets. If you had told me in 2002 that a scene with Dobby the House Elf would have emotional heft, I think I would have laughed myself out of the room.

Which brings us back to the ending: is it appropriate for the film? Yes, in some ways. There's an argument that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 could have ended with a genuine cliffhanger (there are a few very good points in the film that might have worked, not the least of which is Godric's Hollow) instead of where it does end (that I won't spoil, but think about the book and think about the "season finale" analogy), but if you're following the plot thread of Harry, Ron, and Hermione and the discovery of The Deathly Hallows, it's as good a cut-off point as any. It's cathartic, it brings together the right characters to move forward, and the final cut away has the right kind of "oh boy, it's serious now" moment.

But it isn't really an ending; it's the promise of an actual ending in the summer of 2011. While The Half Blood Prince didn't end with Dumbledore's funeral (a fitting closing), it did at least have a denouement that ended one story while promising another to come. The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is an otherwise excellent film that doesn't quite know how to close out half of a story, so it settles for a "to be continued" without really saying so. It just stops. When you put both films together, there's a very good chance that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the finest five hours in the series; until then, we're left with half of a great film.