Harry Potter Week Day #6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

At my local cinema they are screening each of the previous seven Harry Potter films one day after the other in the build up to the series finale 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2'.  Your intrepid blogger has taken the plunge and will watch each of these films and write about his observations...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Studio: Warner Brothers Pictures
Director: David Yates
Screenplay: Steve Kloves
Main Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton, Jim Broadbent

Grade: B-

The most difficult film to write about has been The Half-Blood Prince.  Maybe that's because it's such a thankless task of a film.  It's the penultimate chapter of a story where by now everyone's desperate to reach the end and it's the middle part of a trilogy within the said arc.  There's nothing to make this film individually special and as such it's the hardest to assess as a stand-alone film.

That isn't helped by the incessant funereal march that the film takes as a mood and pace.  Everything has a grim inevitability.  The characters know they are spinning the wheels for the clashes now confirmed as destined and doom-laden.  Harry's whole feeling is that of a sportsman milling around before the evening kick-off, or to put it more grimly a soldier preparing for the final big push.

The attempts to lighten the mood as a result feel more strained and raise at best a grim chuckle like an observation on incongruous catering at a wake.  Ron's romance with groupie Lavender is nothing new as teenage romance had been covered so well in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix and whilst this can't be entirely blamed on Jessie Cave her performance is so broad it feels like she'd been dropped in from the first two films.

The film itself feels like it's drained of life as the predominent colours are grey and muted blue.  The title also never feels particularly vital - because it's based on Harry reading notes in a textbook it is a lot harder to portray on the film than previous titular people or objects.  The final reveal of just who the Half-Blood Prince is feels unimportant compared the latest death.

That's not to say this is a bad film.  The quality of production and performance is so ingrained that the people involved in the making of the fiml can do a decent job with their eyes closed.  Jim Broadbent is a welcome late addition and the background provided to Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort is well executed - the young Riddle has a working class accent is been replaced by refined speech as a teenager.  Despite becoming increasingly farcical as a panto villain in the early films Tom Felton provides Draco with necessary edge and fear required as his character goes from simple school bully to overwhelmed emotional wreck.  Alan Rickman also brings about subtle complications although choices in revealing his apparent alleigances early on prevent further shocks towards the end.

All in all there's a real sense of keeping the wheels in motion.

Coming up: Land of Confusion and The Final Countdown.