Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

 
2010

Dir: David Yates

 
Where the devil did this come from?

I know the films have been gradually growing better with each outing, but I never thought we’d get this far into the adult world of cinema (not that one, pervs) before the fresh faced public school trio disappear into obscurity. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One is really, honestly, and I am in no way, shape or form kidding any of you pretentious, artsy film buffs out there, a bloody good film.

You know the plot right? You don’t!? Oh crap, I really didn’t want to have to summarise this one.
Following the death of Dumbledore (that’s not still a spoiler is it?), things are looking bleak for the wizarding world. So bleak, in fact, that it isn’t even safe for Harry, Ron and Hermione to go back to Hogwarts this year. Somehow school just doesn’t seem that important when faced by the Apocalypse does it? So, in search of the five (or is it six? Who the hell knows?) other Horcruxes needed to destroy Lord Voldemort, our titular bespectacled hero and his romantically entwined chums must go it alone this time.

Director David Yates must have been watching The Road on a constant loop before making this film, because you half expect Viggo Mortensen’s grizzled father to push his shopping trolley into Harry and Hermione’s tent at any second. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra’s landscape captures the same kind of earthy, woody post-Apocalyptic texture as John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel did. This isn’t the barren, desert wasteland of the Mad Max films, or even the more recent Book of Eli effort from The Hughes Brothers. This is a far darker world where everything is dying before our eyes. It’s a bold choice from the director, not least because the world hasn’t actually ended, but it might as well have, as Voldemort’s jackbooted Death Eaters stalk the lands in search of dissenters like a cross between The Road’s cannibals and SS Stormtroopers. Only with cockney accents.

It’s hard to miss the Nazi imagery, especially on Harry’s little romp inside the Ministry of Magic, which has now become much more like 1984’s Ministry of Truth. That is what is so pleasing about Death Hallows; despite its glum, serious tone, there are still tremendously fun sequences that remind you why you fell in love with J.K. Rowling’s world in the first place.

The three leads are, as ever, trying their best, and no, they’re never going to win any awards for their jaw-clenched, hand-trembling efforts to show emotion, but this is certainly the best they have looked so far in the series. The real fun comes predictably in the numerous outlandish cameos (because that’s all they really are in this film) of the adults, from Rhys Ifans’ dotty turn as Xenophilius Lovegood to Peter Mullan’s growling and sinister performance as Death Eater Yaxley. They all hit the right notes.

I was a huge fan of both the Half-Blood Prince book and film, but when it came to the series’ conclusion, I was less than impressed by Rowling’s effort. Yates and his team have really turned it around though, turning the first part of the Deathly Hallows into an enthralling action adventure, a thought-provoking Art house movie, and a visual feast all at the same time. Just like its central characters, this series really has come of age, and I can’t wait for the final instalment.

**** ¼ / *****

The Tory Party Conference.