a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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Directed by Mike Newell.
Written by Steve Kloves.
Based on the novel by J. K. Rowling.
Director of photography, Roger Pratt.
Edited by Mick Audsley.
Music by Patrick Doyle.
Production designer, Stuart Craig.
Produced by David Heyman.
Released by Warner Brothers Pictures.
150 minutes. Rated PG-13.
STARRING: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum), Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Alan Rickman (Professor Severus Snape), Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall), Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew a k a Wormtail), Pedja Bjelac (Igor Karkaroff), Frances de la Tour (Madame Maxime), Roger Lloyd Pack (Barty Crouch), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter) and David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr.)
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“Things are going to change,” Harry Potter’s feisty friend Hermione (Emma Watson) observes gravely. And you know what she’s talking about … our beloved heroes are on the verge of adulthood. The challenges they face are growing tougher. And romance is in the air. Yep, the times, they are a changin’.
But the formula certainly isn’t changing, not one bit.
Like the zigzag on the boy’s forehead, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire careens from Point A to Point B to Point C as predictably as any of the previous episodes. Harry and friends are eagerly anticipating something (this time, it’s a festival, not school.) Then something goes horribly wrong (a terrorist attack.) The kids learn about magic in the classroom (this time from a particularly reckless teacher.) There’s a talisman that makes loud noises (this time, a golden egg). Harry is accused of things he didn’t do (this time, putting his name in the goblet to be chosen for a contest.) He is then thrust into circumstances somewhat unwillingly (namely, life-threatening games.) His sinister nemesis continues to seek a way to get at him (this time by showing up, at last, in person.) Some things (and, perhaps, people) turn out to be Not What They Seem. And it all comes down to a showdown with wands.
So yeah, while Goblet of Fire offers some extravagant new environments like a dazzling sports arena a hundred levels tall and an underwater wonderland fraught with squid-like mermaids, it’s really just the same old model with some juicy new features. Rowling the storyteller is becoming the exemplar of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And thus it’s up to the directors to find ways to make each episode seem fresh and surprising.
Fortunately for moviegoers, Goblet of Fire is directed with nuance and extravagance by Mike Newell, who also directed an underrated, overlooked family film called Into the West more than a decade ago. In that film, he showed a flair for directing young actors, and he demonstrates that strength again here, especially in the film’s best scenes, which also happen to be the quieter, effects-free scenes. He ensures that Harry Potter, brought to life by the increasingly impressive Daniel Radcliffe, and surrounded by a host of profoundly talented supporting players, continues to be the most engaging non-hero in family entertainment.
That is to say, it would be hard to name another title character beloved by children who rarely chooses to act courageously, but who is either thrust reluctantly or against his will into adventures, and who frequently responds to challenges by cheating and skirting the rules. The boy wizard may be stuffed cheek-to-jowl with destiny, gifted with supernatural talents, guided by ethical teachers in the mandatory bathrobes of wisdom, and occasionally willing to act out of concern for his friends. But even here in his fourth film, it’s hard to root for the guy. Harry’s still just someone to whom things happen, rather than a man of action.
That doesn’t mean that our beloved passive protagonist should be overlooked. This series is proving to be a lot of fun for many reasons. The scripts are lively and amusing, far better than what we sat through in the Star Wars prequels. The special effects in the films just keep getting better, and here they’re positively thrilling, coming close to the standard set by Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series.
For action, this is easily the best of the series. The attack of baddies in the opening act is the most frightening thing in the series so far. Voldemort’s agents storm through the festival like Klu Klux Klansmen in black, torching everything in sight, and the chaos is terrifying.
Harry’s bout with a particularly ferocious dragon on and around the spires of Hogwarts is exhilarating—let’s hope it doesn’t inspire an amusement park ride. Moviemakers have a lamentable record when it comes to animating dragons–a dragon should leave us in awe. (Dragonheart had a good look, but the dragon was too friendly to be awe-inspiring. Reign of Fire was the only dragon film in recent memory that really made your skin crawl, but its budget only allowed the monsters to appear very briefly.)
And one of the most interesting foes of all is—I’m not making this up—a most sinister variety of shrubbery.
The other constant delight of this saga is its cast of co-stars. The Potter series is a veritable who’s-who of British acting legends. In this episode, we add Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, and best of all, Brendan Gleeson to the list. Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, and Timothy Spall are all back. Even Gary Oldman returns for a fiery cameo.
Things play out to a pitch-perfect soundtrack, which is less bombastic this time, probably due to the fact that this is the first Potter film scored by someone other than John Williams. (Patrick Doyle, who also scored Into the West and is composing the music for the upcoming fantasy adaptation of Eragon, gets the job and performs beautifully.)
All of these elements contribute to make Goblet of Fire just about the equal of that last episode, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Just as the books grow darker and more complex as they go, so the films follow, and Harry stumbles into his most disturbing and violent predicaments this time around. And brace yourselves… people are going to die. Note the PG-13 rating.
Here, Rowling is dealing with more, um, grownup themes, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione must now start thinking about asking dates to the ball. Harry must also survive the discomfort of sharing a bath with someone of the opposite sex (in a scene that also involves learning to open an egg), and then he must nervously enter a complex labyrinth in hopes of being the first to touch a magical talisman, which transforms ecstatically when it’s touched. How’s that for Freudian overload! Did I mention the snakes?
Yes, this is it—the end of Potter’s not-so-innocent childhood and the beginning of what we have every reason to suspect will be a not-so-innocent adulthood. His world of magical spells continues to abound with metaphor and meaning reminiscent of Star Wars, and Narnia and Middle-earth before that, and the Grimm tales before that, and King Arthur before that. Rowling is proving the nay-sayers wrong by leading the fans into a resonant myth about growing up instead of into corruption and witchcraft,
But it’s not just the end of the innocence. This is also about the end of what little suspense the series has built regarding the malevolent Lord Voldemort, that immaterial beast slouching toward Hogwarts.
Oh, we know he’s coming. You can feel it right from the beginning, as Harry dreams of the encroaching danger. But the path to Voldemort leads through the events of the famous “Tri Wizard Tournament” being hosted by Hogwarts, a three-stage trial that conveniently provides structure for the narrative. Harry gets tossed unexpectedly in with older and more experienced wizards—the strapping young Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), a French tough-gal named Fleur (Clémence Poésy), and the Justin Timberlake of the wizard world, Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), who is as interested in Hermione as he is in winning.
It’s far too complicated a book to distill completely into a movie. Plot threads that could have been highlights end up frail and forgettable. Goblet really blows its opportunity to develop an interesting romance between Harry and newcomer Cho Chang (the adorable Katie Leung.) Instead, it dwells on sequences in which effects—dazzling as they are—bluster and swirl around a boy who looks like he’s wondering when the madness is going to stop and let him settle down.
And when the dark lord finally arrives, he’s a complete letdown. It’s not Ralph Fiennes’ fault—you could say he’s “on the nose” with his performance, if Voldemort had a nose. He brings the necessary melodrama to the character, and the effects team gives him a particularly nasty visage. Line him up with the Emperor from Revenge of the Sith and Satan from The Passion of the Christ and you’ve got a striking family resemblance. But the scene is ridiculous. Voldemort prances around and whines at his cronies, then engages in an astonishingly unremarkable duel with the boy wizard.
Worse, while the story’s body count makes it the darkest of the series so far, the deaths happen so quickly that we don’t have time to feel much. Perhaps readers who know the characters better will come prepared with the necessary emotion, but other moviegoers aren’t nearly ready to mourn for these poor souls, no matter how hard the soundtrack works to jerk tears from our eyes.
It doesn’t help that Harry’s friends seem to be under a spell that whittles their characters down to mere caricatures. Ron is just sullen and spectacularly narrow-minded. While the others are acting like teens, he’s acting like a six-year-old (although it’s a pleasure to watch the talented Rupert Grint growing up in the role.) Hermione becomes hysterical at the slightest provocation, even though Emma Watson look positively radiant in her gown for the ball.
If it weren’t for the confoundingly ludicrous story and its misconceived climax, it might have been the best of the bunch. While the beginning proves that Harry’s nightmares can be terrifying indeed, the conclusion proves they can be like self-absorbed playground bullies in fancy dresses. They concoct far more elaborate plans than necessary to draw Harry away from his companions and confront him. And given extraordinary opportunities to finish him off, they botch it so badly that it will be hard to fear them when they return, inevitably, in the sequels.
Still, no one should miss this opportunity to witness so many marvels. The festival at the beginning is the most boisterous big screen party since Bilbo Baggins’ birthday party. The Quiddich stadium is likely to inspire architects to build its equivalent for some U.S. sports team–it’s a stunning backdrop that makes the various Star Wars stadiums look simplistic. A ship emerges from the sea in a visual joke borrowed from Pirates of the Caribbean, but it’s breathtaking all the same, as is the chariot drawn by flying horses. And Harry’s underwater trials would be the perfect environment for a National Geographic special… if it were real.
The joy of exploring such creativity is reason enough to fork over another nine bucks to the Harry Potter franchise. Newell continues to improve on the big screen realization of a world that’s enthralling to explore… in spite of the pouting, cheating little dullard at the center of it all.