Written by Linda
November 29, 2010
Dark, terrifying, and relentless, this is the beginning of the end of the Harry Potter series... and luckily, this first half of the finale (at least) is the best Harry Potter film since Azkaban.
The earliest moments of what I'll just call HP7 (like the posters) set the level of emotion that manages to carry relentlessly through the whole first half of this final chapter. Hermione (Emma Watson) mournfully waves her wand at her parents on the couch, and through the whole living room, erasing her from their memories and their home. Her image disappears from photographs--of a smiling child, of parents and daughter--leaving a vacant space in the pictures. She leaves her home as her parents sit unknowingly, watching TV, having forgotten the daughter they never knew they had. Yep, I was crying already.
And the other mood-setting early moment has good old noseless Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) sitting with his merry henchmen, planning to overtake the world with his own brand of evil. Well, no, it's actually more like Voldemort lording over his disciples who are frankly terrified of him (even poor Luscious Malfoy looks literally sick with fear), as he announces his plan to kill Harry Potter himself. And there's a huge snake, and a sacrifice. Holy crap, this whole scene was really unnerving.
And yet, those scenes are just the beginning.
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione, and Ron (Rupert Grint) grimly leave their homes (if their homes haven't left them first), and set out to gather and destroy the Horcruxes (the keys to Voldemort's immortality), an act that is their only hope of being able to defeat the Dark Lord. Voldemort, however, has his own plans of becoming all-powerful, and this involves the myth and perhaps reality of a folk tale about the Deathly Hallows, which would basically give Voldemort the ultimate power that he seeks. The two are on a path to meet, with Voldemort planning to find and kill, but not if Harry Potter tries to do it first.
Gone are the giggly flirts from the last film. These kids may be teens, but they are fully forced into adulthood with the onset of the grave responsibility of basically saving the world from evil. There is very little time for stopping and making out (sorry Ron and Hermione), and the constant tension of the situation truly tests the threesome's friendship. Suddenly the costs are that much higher, as this war of good and evil starts to take its toll with mounting casualties and heartbreaking losses.
Luckily the young actors have grown in skill as well with age as the series progressed. Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint all do their best work in this film, deftly carrying the emotional weight that is necessary for this story. And, as usual, they are surrounded by the best of the best in the British acting pantheon. Now that Bill Nighy and Peter Mullen have finally shown up in the series, I honestly have a hard time thinking of any other British actors who I would have loved to see show up in Harry Potter's world.
As someone who hasn't read the books, I can only sense with dread that it is going to get much worse from here. But as this film is just the beginning of what we hope will be a worthy climax to the film series, I sincerely hope that the second half is as good as the first... Because, what a relief! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is very very good.
