Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2004)
Studio: Warner Brothers Pictures
Director: Mike Newell
Screenplay: Steve Kloves
Main Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michel Gambon, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, Robert Pattinson, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton, David Tennant
Grade: B
The publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the first real indication that the stories of a bespectacled school-going wizard had blown up to a global phenomenon. The build-up to the event was greeted with JK Rowling taking a Hogwarts Express train tour around the country, exclusive interviews on 24-hour news channels and midnight openings also came with what must have been intimidating sight for many young readers as the book was more than twice the length of the previous Prisoner of Azkaban. Children were undaunted and the sales climbed steadily higher. The film was picking up pace and it really seemed like this was more than a literary flash-in-the-pan. There was a growing sense that for many members of a generation Harry Potter and his friends and enemies will mean as much to them as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader meant to a previous generation and He-Man and Transformers meant to the one after that. That it was rooted in books to begin with should have made the cultural commentators happy - but already the backlash was coming.
All three films had been long for childrens' movies and most blockbusters too, but the audience seemed undaunted by the length. The question came at the time of splitting the film for Goblet of Fire into two parts was raised but quickly dashed as too risky and potentially damaging to the quality of the whole story being told. Whether the box office success that two-parter Deathly Hallows has had left them kicking themselves is something only the Warner Brothers executives and their chiropractors will ever know.
I'm relieved that Goblet of Fire wasn't split in two and I'm also relieved that there weren't major re-casting decision made. Rumours at the time had suggested that Prisoner of Azkaban could have been the final film for the young cast who were now perhaps outgrowing their characters in maturity as the gap between films became a year-and-a-half at least each time. Thankfully this never came to pass, all of the actors stayed on board and a sense of continuity was retained. Also watching these films back-to-back really allows you the rare opportunity to see growing up before your eyes - the puppy fat vanishing, the voices dropping, the pimples occassionally showing through the make up.
Goblet of Fire is the bridge between two very separate trilogies. The first three films were about uncovering hidden truths, understanding this world that runs in parallel to our own and having adventures fuelled by youthful inquiry, energy and just not knowing better. The fifth to seventh films are all build-up and execution of the final battle - the legend and ghostly spectre of Voldemort in the first three has become a brutal, physical presence once more, battle lines are drawn and lives are lost. Goblet of Fire is the film where the overriding mood switches from innocence and the unknown to a grim reality and the need to mature and face literal demons head on.
That said this is also the funniest of all the Potter movies. Whether this is Mike Newell's doing given his past with Four Weddings and a Funeral and the sense that the first British director brought a more wry, ironic sensibilty or perhaps is just that since this is the first film to address the romantic entanglements that the teenage years provide there was an understanding that there was something inherently silly and amusing about young kids who can transport themselves to distant places, summon fire and light and dart around in the air on broomsticks but when required to ask a girl to dance they become as flustered and frightened as a little mouse. One wonders if the increasing British influence of the film may also explain the representation of all the visiting French students as beautiful ballet dancing charmers and the Eastern Europeans as stern, cropped haired, wild dancing warriors. The Bulgarian Quidditch hero Krum is clearly at least twenty-five which makes his entering a contest for school students unfair and his intentions with Hermione more than a little bit wrong. But I suppose as a Brit I'm supposed to think 'Well that's them foreigners for you...'
This is probably the most 'teenage' of all the films. You sense that if he'd been directing still it might have been a good idea to float the idea of giving John Hughes a crack of the whip. Harry and Ron's hair is at their longest and scruffiest, they are quick to fall out, loaded with jealousy and quick to snap at each other and the presence of a changing Hermione starts to stir up unusual feelings for both characters - Ron is a slightly more befuddled way than Harry but Radcliffe plays it very well when he sees Watson walking down the stairs dressed for the gala ball with a genuine tension of Harry thinking 'Well I've never seen you like this before'. The shared glances of Hermione and Ginny and other girls at the mere presence of Robert Pattinson's Hogwarts heart-throb of course have a whole other layer of meaning when he became the new supernatural pin-up of choice but it's clear from this film on that Radcliffe can firmly be placed in the 'hunk' category as well - quick glances at his torso in the Hogwarts bath as he fends off the advances of Moaning Myrtle (played by the 40-year-old Shirley Henderson) suggest an awareness that Potter and Radcliffe's physical appeal is something they can harness but are unsure morally how far they can go considering he's still technically playing a forteen year old.
Yet again a debuting adult character steals many of the best lines. Brendan Gleeson's Mad Eye Moody has a Churchillian warrior spirit to him. He's a man of many battle scars and a quick temper, but there's a clear fierce loyalty in him and a playful humour with those that he favours. The revelation that he's been David Tennant in disguise all along is not much of a twist I would imagine, but the most clear reveal is a really nice moment that I'm not sure I caught the first time around in 2005.
Forgive me for being snarky online writter #42953 for saying this but Quidditch has always annoyed me. Even from reading the first book nearly fifteen years ago I found it hard to believe that no one at any point said 'this snitch malarky equalling 150 points - surely this will make nearly every game a redundant exercise for the other six participants on each time. And are we REALLY going to bludgeon them?!' There was a moment in Philosopher's Stone where a youngster gets knocked hard by a ball reminiscent of the leather medicine balls used in pre-war football and falls all the way to the ground knocked unconscious and we have a short close-up of Professor McGonagall. You can in her face she's thinking 'How can we have this game in the 21st century?' The film opens at the 422nd Quidditch World Cup where Ireland (complete with Leprachaun mascot) host Bulgaria. I like to imagine that England won the 5th or 6th World Cup, haven't won one since and still waffle on about it today with a mixture of unwarranted pride and bitter cynicism at the following centuries of failure.
When you look at the whole Triwizard Tournament you can't help but feel that a few Muggle-born youngsters must now feel like Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs. This idyllic haven has actually turned out to be a barbaric, Draconian society not particularly fussed about the death of three outstanding young wizards as long as their elders are amused as they tussle with dragons, sea creatures and demented hedges whilst they sit above in the stands.
The cuts to the source material have obviously had to be vicious and thorough in this book - this is a far more streamlined story than any of the first three and it shows. We are not afforded the annual trip to the Dursleys which is a shame - their presence always reminded me of Roald Dahl and you feel that an amusing series of short childrens books is just waiting to be made that will provide children even more unneeded ammunition against their fat classmates in the playground.
If the first film had been about the trio as brave young children, the second about Harry and Ron being resourceful and the third about Hermione using her guile and Harry trying to keep up Goblet of Fire is very much a Harry one-man-show. This film is Radcliffe and Potter's coming out as a young action hero of the James Bond/Indiana Jones mould. To give Radcliffe and the crew their due for the most part you buy it. Harry has already had to prove his bravery and ability to just keep going regardless of the situation and all Hermione and Ron (when he's not moping at the gradual realisation he is the Penfold to his best mate's Danger Mouse).
This film doesn't work as well as Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban on the whole. The action can be fairly dull at times in the first two fights and Newell has no visual touches to match the likes of the whomping willow flailing snow directly onto the camera but the dialogue and acting in the thirty or so minutes dedicated to the tentative young romances blossoming and the final set-piece first in the hedge maze suggests a fearful dementia and dread of the unknown forces at work that clearly seem indebted to Sam Raimi's first two Evil Dead movies.
The best is saved for the finale, though, as Voldemort's return to human form is a great tour-de-force. I'd argue it's the best set-piece of the saga to date and that is a lot to do with Ralph Fiennes imbuing so much energy and malice and odd humour to his performance. His Voldemort is evil, arrogant but also jubilant - you get a sense of him getting as much out of his regenerated body as possible with every flourish and step. His performance in front of the Death Eaters is almost playful as he believes his return and swift execution of Harry will be all that is needed. Here is where I also believe that Radcliffe completely steps up. It's the pivotal point in Potter's arc in that he knows now is the time to fight and be a man as he leaves his hiding place and they clash spells. The clashing lightning bolts of red and green are wonderful special effects, but I can't be the only one to be a bit too bothered by the obvious lightsabre similarities in those duels. The lack of physical closeness by the two combatants is also a problem for filming reasons but both actors and the sound and visual effects as well as the effective storytelling means that this is still a momentous moment. As an inner-city Baltimore wizard might say - 'This shit just got real.'
Coming up: Tantrums, torture and tongues
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