Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Yates, 2011)
Click here to read my reviews of the previous Harry Potter films.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is good enough as an action adventure, but it’s elevated by pathos created through a decade of storytelling. It hardly matters if the action seems to stall a predictable ending or if there are too many sentimental monologues: the filmmakers have been earning these last moments for eight films. In many ways, we measure “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” along with all that has come before. The whole of the series has succeeded beyond the individual parts, and this chapter benefits from grand summation.
For the last time, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) get in over their heads trying to destroy Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes in his best performance of the series). Their teachers, played by the likes of Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman, float on the periphery, providing protection, guidance or clues to a mystery long buried. There are mid-air chases, wand battles and cataclysmic spells that would shake the whole of Great Britain. And there are goodbyes (too many, some would say) that feel appropriately bittersweet, given the years we’ve spent with these characters. There’s even a sequence in the Room of Requirement revealing props from all of the previous Potter films. Director David Yates might have a hard-line reason for this –- perhaps all magical objects retreated into the room with Hogwarts under attack –- but more likely it’s a wink to the audience, giving us everything we could possibly require in our last Potter outing.
The resolution is underwhelming, depending more on trivial wand lore than the themes that have grown the series. However, it plays fair and provides at least a semi-credible reason why teenagers could feasibly hold their own against the greatest dark wizard of all time. A better story twist comes a bit earlier in the film, providing devastating answers to questions that have lingered throughout the series. Here, the actors have a chance to show how much they’ve matured in past years. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson were impressive in the first half of “Deathly Hallows,” but in these scenes they are as authentic as any actors in more realistic genres. There’s a stark close-up of Radcliffe’s face after he makes a discovery. He looks straight into the camera, processing what he has learned. He is bleeding, broken and unmistakably a man now. The image is shockingly removed from the youthful face that decorated the first few Potter films. We get the sense that a character has been completed and that we were there every step of the way — a rare bit of cinema magic.
Grade: B+
Personally I feel it was mean of you to title this after the West Wing episode featuring CJ’s father. However, I agree with your findings. I am anxious to see what Grint does next, and to a lesser extent, the other two.