The Top Floor Flat

I have a friend who insists that the entire Harry Potter series is a continued indication of the fact that J.K. Rowling is a very unhappy person. I don’t think I agree with his analysis (especially because he’s only ever read the first book and refuses to read the others) but one does has to wonder if there’s a bit of masochism involved with creating such a terrible life for your main protagonist.

The sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, is just the newest in a long stream of trials and tribulations for our favourite boy wizard and, as the critics are fond of saying, it’s the darkest story yet. While it may be true that the 6th book is certainly darker than its predecessors, it would be a tad optimistic to agree with previews that suggested the film would be the same way. A fantastic first ten minutes, which sees the destruction of my favourite London location, the iconic millennium bridge, as well as the return of the sinister Bellatrix Lestrange, last seen murdering fan favourite Sirius Black in movie five, seem to slow in pace perceptibly after the crew returns to Hogwarts.

The sixth book sometimes takes a bit of a beating from casual fans of the series who claim that nothing really happens. There is quite a bit that’s set up for the last of the series but I think there are some pretty important bits of the sixth book that flesh out the series overall. For my part, when I sat down in the theatre on 16 July to see the long awaited film, I was interested to see how many of those important bits would sneak in. The challenge is that these important snippets of the books fall under the categories of ‘character development’ and ‘rationalisation for why these characters do the things they do.’ Such things rarely translate well to the big screen. Perhaps the most important takeaway from the sixth book is the importance of love – and the fact that Harry can still do so despite all that has happened to him, a point driven home again and again throughout the text. This seems to have been translated into a series of rote scenes of young love appearing seemingly out of no where.

Because I am such a fan of the books, I do have to try to separate the books from the films. The films can never live up to the precedent set by the books. Despite my gripes, I really do think they did a good job with this one. A number of the changes in the film I thought were either absolutely essential to keep those who hadn’t read the books on board or were actually improvements on minor issues in the story. One notable scene in the book involves Harry and Dumbledore examining a memory collected from a colleague only to discover it had been tampered with. In the book, there are more than enough clues even in the tampered memory to make it unlikely that someone as clever as Dumbledore couldn’t figure it out. In the movie, the memory is even further obscured than in the text, actually necessitating Harry’s efforts to find the untarnished memory.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is not going to win any Oscars and despite the fact that the child actors have grown into their roles, there is still a certain amount of suspended disbelief on their behalf as they cardboard-cutout their way through the more emotional scenes. But it’s a fantastic story, a great bit of escapism and a movie that will please non-fans and fans alike. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the film as well – let me know what you thought in the comments below!