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J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
- the third book in that series - was the last book in
the series that I got around to reading. By this point, the
novelty and detail the author used to describe the British
underworld of wizards and witches and its crowning academic
institution Hogwarts in the first book had lost its luster.
With every description of a Quidditch match and with the introduction
of a WHACKY new monster, this world started to smack of desperate
redundancy. As though every creative visual Rowling could
imagine was used up in the original tome. But if her imagination
for Harry's world was running dry, the characters were deteriorating
at a faster rate. By this third book, there were already countless
"bad guys" whose motives were conveniently cluttered
so the "big reveal" in the third act would show
their soft sides for young Harry Potter. And could there be
anything more to the internal battles between the factions
of Hogwarts other than class-based sniggering? The one glimmer
of hope The Prisoner of Azkaban offered were darker
explorations of its central character. Potter, slowly steeping
into puberty, was learning more and more about the violent
and layered story of his parents and the origins of his above-average
wizard power. Whatever that means. But this represented a
turn for Potter as a character, up to this point merely a
slack-jawed supplement for the audience. Now he was becoming
a teenager who had real doubt and real angst about his evolving
gift. There seemed like the series would have real life. I
began to think this might be more than a passing literary
fad.
Then, two things happened. One, the fourth book turned out
to be two million pages long. Like many authors, Rowling seemed
to believe that a book can't be important unless it overuses
words. Admittedly, that's what I got from the first few chapters
of the book while I "stole" reading at Barnes and
Noble. Two, Chris Columbus directed the first two Harry
Potter adaptations. Columbus, the man who was able to
turn a raunchy French abortion comedy into the Hugh Grant-Tom
Arnold yuk-fest Nine Months, didn't seem like
the guiding director that could make such a wonderful world
into something cinematic. And he didn't. The Sorcerer's
Stone was so calculated and effects-heavy that the characters
barely registered. Columbus was so worried about re-creating
moments from the novel that he completely failed to translate
the human elements of Rowling's fantasy. Thus, the audience
had nothing to relate to while watching this 2 1/2-hour monstrosity.
And admittedly, I didn't even bother with seeing The Chamber
of Secrets. (A search of The Filmsnobs Archives revealed
I saw the already-forgotten indie phenomenon Secretary
that weekend instead) But with the success of the first two
films, it seemed certain that Columbus would ruin any potential
the third film might have to flesh out Harry's odd puberty
issues. But like magic, Columbus dropped out of the series
to spend more time with his family. And Warner Brothers, in
a move akin to allowing Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan to
helm super hero blockbusters, selected director Alfonso Cuaron
to direct The Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuaron developed
a fair amount of street cred with 2002's Y Tu Mama, Tambien,
a sex-fueled coming-of-age story about three Mexican teens
on a road trip. While many focused on the explicit aspects
of the film, many failed to give appropriate praise to the
story's accurate and fond recollection of teenage awakening
and maturity. And many more forgot that Cuaron also directed
the wonderful fairy tale A Little Princess back in
1995. With this filmography, Cuaron was a deft choice to guide
Potter through the magically nasty transformation from adolescence
to adulthood. And The Prisoner of Azkaban does capture
more of the character and more of the rich darkness of Rowling's
work. But Cuaron's considerable talent as a storyteller still
can't prevent the film from its varied redundancies and the
story's basic and remedial interest in Potter's imagined world.
The film starts off with perverse promise: We open in Potter's
suburban home. He is under the sheets in his room discovering
new abilities of his magic. His uncle runs in startled by
the noises he hears from the hallway. Guys, haven't we all
been here? Getting our heads out of the gutter, Potter is
under the sheets realizing a strength in his magical powers.
With the initial, pre-Hogwarts scenes, Cuaron's fingerprints
are prominent. Instead of the Charles-Dickins- in-a-theme-park
neighborhood of Columbus, Potter's foster home seems more
real. It seems like a far more damaging and abusive place
than the stogy caricatures in the earlier films. Potter flees
back to Hogwarts Academy early, only to learn that the Wizard
community is shaken by some alarming news. Sirius Black (Gary
Oldman) has escaped from the previously invincible Prison
of Azkaban. Black is a particularly nasty murderer and many
at Hogwarts including Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael
Gambon replacing the deceased Richard Harris) and Professor
Lupin (David Thewlis), who takes a particularly strong interest
in protecting Potter.They seem to think that Black will come
to Hogwarts for Potter due to some mysterious connection in
the past. Azkaban even dispatches these nasty hooded Dementors
that try to suck the soul out of any trouble maker. But Potter
also has to deal with something even more dangerous than deranged
serial killers, soul suckers, or werewolves that have begun
to circle the Academy. He must now deal with hormones. Potter
soon teams up with his old friends Ron (Rupert Grint ) and
Hermione (Emma Watson) who all seem a little more...touchy
with each other in the past. Potter also finds himself getting
angrier with the hands life has dealt him. He lashes out easier
at teachers and his peers. His angst about his lost parents
grow. Until the plot takes over in the third act, The Prisoner
of Azkaban had the markings of a great character study
of this mythical character going through a very real process
of change and a unleashing of repressed grief.
But there's that plot. By the time Black arrives on the scene,
the film seems to forget about him. Oldman is left with all
of his "Oldman" craziness and nothing to do with
it. This portion of the film is left to a rather insufferable
sequence involving the ability for the kids to travel back
in short distances of time and the true identity of Ron's
pet rat. Yes, the really interesting plot development about
Potter and the murder of his parents gets hijacked by a rat.
Yet, these developments are slightly above the fray of those
regular "Is this character a Good Guy or a Bad Guy"
chain-jerking we've come to expect from these stories. This
time, actors like Oldman and Thewlis place stakes into these
characters that make them more than simple pawns in the plot.
They feel for this kid...one way or the other. They, along
with Emma Thompson as the eccentric professor Sybil Trelawney
and Gambon seem to respond to the respectable company they
keep on the other side of the camera. Indeed, The Prisoner
of Azkaban seems injected with a style unlike anything
prior. Hogwarts has an Earthier tone with more detail in the
background. Every scene is filled with something for the eye
to behold. They may be darkened by the shadows and sharp light
of Cuaron's vision, but there is more for the eye to see.
His playfulness is on display with the moments where the children
are introduced to a hippogriff, the half-bird/half-horse creature.
Or the Ridiculous Wand, that can turn anything menacing into
something...rediculous. But instead of setting these moments
up as jokey special-effects displays under Columbus, they
play prominently into Potter's development. These are big
steps for the series that has always suffered from narrative
problems. But a vision and a style has finally been established.
I don't know if director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and
a Funeral, Donnie Brasco) will have the same flair, but
he certainly has a promising launch pad. This may even get
me to read the last few books.
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