Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
June 4, 2004
Warner Bros.
Fantasy, Drama, Comedy
DVD
A-

The Harry Potter regulars this time include (*means newbie to the series):

1. Peter Best as the Executioner*
2. David Bradley as Argus Filch
3. Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid
4. Violet Columbus as Girl With Flowers
5. Warwick Davis as "Wizard" (see below)
6. Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas
7. Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy
8. Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore*
9. Richard Griffiths as Uncle Vernon
10. Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
11. Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle
12. Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
13. Harry Melling as Dudley Dursley
14. Devon Murray as Seamus Finnegan
15. Gary Oldman as Sirius Black*
16. James Phelps as Fred Weasley
17. Oliver Phelps as George Weasley
18. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
19. Chris Rankin as Percy Weasley
20. Adrian Rawlins as James Potter
21. Fiona Shaw as Aunt Petunia
22. Geraldine Somerville as Lily Potter
23. Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew*
24. Danielle Tabor as Angelina Johnson
25. David Thewlis as Remus Lupin*
26. Mark Williams as Arthur Weasley
27. Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
28. Jamie Waylett as Vincent Crabbe
29. Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley

In addition, Emma Thompson joins the cast as spacey Professor Trelawney.  (Which strengthens the Potter-Austen axis of course.)  This blend of old and new, including the shift of director Chris Columbus over to a producer role, so that the director's chair is filled by Alfonso Cuarón, really impacts the series.  As with Thompson's Sense & Sensibility, having a director whose first language is not English seems to both bring out the universality of what is a very British story and add an outsider's view.  

My review of the book is here
http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/11/harry-potter-and-prisoner-of-azkaban.html, but you'll note that I don't regard this as a children's movie in the way that that was a children's book.  This is very much a movie about a younger teen and his two best friends starting to really navigate their way through a more complex world.  The switch in directors also contributes to a less wide-eyed, warier tone.

As for that jump from B to A-, well, I thought then and continue to think that this is not only the best film in the series, but the only one that is on a level with The Wizard of Oz.  Everything is better-- the special effects, the acting, and the music in particular.  (Williams captures all the moods, from bittersweet to whimsical.)  Even the closing credits are much more creative than elsewhere in the series.

Radcliffe is making more effort, not always successfully ("HE WAS THEIR FRIEND" is notorious in fandom), but much better than under Columbus, while Grint and Watson continue to be solid, even as puberty complicates their bickering relationship.  And all the Gambon-bashers who are bitter about the loss of Richard Harris should take another look at his work here, which is much subtler and deeper than in the fourth film.  I also have to make special mention of Thewlis, who is just perfect as the avuncular but flawed Professor Lupin.  The only person who seems to be short-changed is poor Bonnie Wright with her one line as Ginny.  And the only one who is oddly treated is Warwick Davis, who apparently had nothing to do as Flitwick this time and so became the Choir Teacher, which would have a long-lasting effect on the appearance and to some degree character of Flitwick for the rest of the series, as I'll discuss under Goblet.

As for the special effects, it's partly that the CGI and other aspects had two and a half years to advance, but also that Cuarón and his crew are being more creative with them, as with the utterly believable Buckbeak, the Hippogriff who expresses everything from anger to affection to, well, defecation.

Interestingly, when I first saw the trailer for this entry, I had almost the opposite reaction to the trailer for the first.  I thought they'd really screwed up this time.  So it was a revelation when I saw the actual movie, which, yes, has a tone that takes some getting used to but is well worth the initial disorientation.  (And that the film starts with a tasteful masturbation joke was part of the surprise.)  I think the movie continues to hold up remarkably well, both within the series and as a stand-alone.  I was always disappointed that Cuarón did not return, but David Yates would make contributions of his own.  As for Mike Newell, well, stay tuned.

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility
January 26, 1996
Columbia
Comedy, Drama, Romance, Historical
DVD
B+

My review of the book is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2011/12/sense-and-sensibility.html.  On balance, I think the movie and book are equal, for reasons I discuss there.  So let me just mention a few things, I didn't cover before, in particular, the casting.  As you can see, I've tagged a heck of a lot of people, three of whom were in Peter's Friends:  Emma Thompson of course, and Hugh Laurie & Imelda Staunton, again playing a married couple, although their height difference is used for more comic effect here.  Everyone of the tagged performers, except the two Hughs and Imogen Stubbs (who is Lucy here and would shortly appear in Twelfth Night with Imelda Staunton), would be in at least one Harry Potter movie, while Grant and Jones would be in both Bridget Jones movies.

This cast cosiness adds to the feel of the movie, which is, as it title suggests, very much about thoughts and feelings.   (And Thompson, whose marriage to Kenneth Branagh was breaking up at the time, would find love with Greg Wise, who plays Willoughby here.)  With the female side of the Dashwood family in particular (Jones, Thompson, Kate Winslet, and a quite good Emilie François as Margaret), we see how much they care, not in a corny way but as if the family is central to their identities, romances aside.  Watch for instance how Edward's proposal is told not through Thompson and Grant but through the reactions of her mother and sisters.  Meanwhile, Alan Rickman gives a performance throughout the film that is more about what he doesn't say than what he does.  (And he already has developed the Snapian pauses by the way.)

The other thing I really appreciated this go-round was the scenery.  It's not as lovely as Italy in Enchanted April, but in its own understated way England (Devonshire especially) is figurative as well as literal background to the mood of the story.