First review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

1/3
10 April 2012

For all the raging teenage hormones stirred into the usual potion of magic and adventure, the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter saga is a slickly unemotional affair. David Yates’s film, which has a Hagrid-sized premiere at the Empire and Odeon in Leicester Square tonight, sees young wizards Harry, Hermione and Ron dealing with increased maturity, not only through the onset of romantic crushes and jealousy, but also the experience of loss.

In a story that diverges slightly from JK Rowling’s novel, orphan Harry is increasingly isolated while the trio’s homes and old haunts come under attack. And there is the dramatic death of a much-loved parental substitute. Yet the movie remains curiously unmoving. The most successful franchise in cinema has become an effects-laden juggernaut, steaming unstoppably through increasingly familiar storylines, with a few extra adornments and crew members on board each time, to keep the interest up.

Prime amongst the additions this time is Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, a vague, bumbling expert in potions who taught Harry’s nemesis, Voldemort, as a boy. Sir Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore lures Slughorn back to Hogwarts to unlock his memories, in the hope of finding a way for Harry to defeat the Dark Lord. Such emotional clout as Yates’s film possesses comes from these two veteran actors. Broadbent is affecting as a man thoroughly out of his depth, unaware of how his habit of picking teacher’s pets has been exploited. Gambon’s performance as Dumbledore is shot through with looming pathos.

The no-longer quite-so-young stars fare less well. Emma Watson’s Hermione yearns prettily for Rupert Grint’s Ron as he falls comically foul of love both real and chemically induced, and poison (and, as we now know, swine flu). Though reinvented as a stud-muffin, Ron is still there for light relief. His and Hermione’s romantic troubles, and Harry’s faltering affection for Ron’s sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright) feel hollow and uninvolving. As Harry, Daniel Radcliffe now has a steely maturity. It’s as if he’s stood above the character, commenting ironically on the boy wizard.

Never mind. There are lots of kinetic quidditch games and soaring panning shots around Hogwarts’ Gothic spires to distract the eye.

Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel paints in gorgeous snowy vistas and seething cloudscapes. The plot is the usual hocus-pocus aimed at keeping Harry and Voldemort in antagonistic play, this time involving a vanishing cabinet discovered by the troubled Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and a vial of something called "liquid luck". The subplot concerning the identity of the half-blood prince, whose potions book Harry inherits, is a virtual red herring. There is one truly scary scene, where Harry and Dumbledore are attacked by a horde of emaciated ghouls that look like Gollums. This, and the film’s excessive length, may prove problematic for younger viewers.

Despite its 153-minute running time, Yates’s film proceeds at a cracking pace. Several leading British actors — Julie Walters, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis — cling on in tiny cameos as this instalment heads towards a two-part conclusion in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Complaints about the plot, or the disjunction between the lead characters’ adolescent attitudes and the actors’ obvious physical maturity, feel redundant. The Harry Potter films are a phenomenon, as powerful as any Hogwarts love potion. Resistance is useless.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince goes on general release on Wednesday 15 July.

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
Cert: 12A

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