As one of the dwindling number of adults (I know) who will admit to not only having read but also enjoying all of the Harry Potter books, I was definitely going to see this film in the cinema. Considering Alfonso Cuarón’s ...Prisoner of Azkaban had put the first two films (feebly helmed by Chris Columbus) to shame, I was almost excited. Admittedly the higher you climb the harder you fall but oh my I did learn my lesson here.

    Disappointing, but not abysmal. Mike Newell (director of Four Weddings and a funeral, Mona Lisa Smile and Donnie Brasco) had a lot to work with in the fourth book, namely the tournament for the tri-wizard cup but also a fair few new characters to frighten us with and watch our heroes fall for. What’s nice is that the perpetual clammy warmth of the first two films has remained in its rightful place: elsewhere. There’s something sinister and broody about Hogworts left over from number three. Despite a gallant effort to streamline the film’s contents it still feels messy and simultaneously over-long. With focus rightly on the tournament the beauty here ought to lay in the action and this is where it fails most. The CG swimming Harry for example would have been better suited to a ZX Spectrum game. Lazily using a face shot of Harry ducking behind a rock and remerging as ‘robo-potter’ with flipper feet was a huge let down. I liked the shark boy though. The Quidditch and fight sequences are similarly cowardly in content or lacking in style. Moreover there’s a lot that just doesn’t make sense, Newell is perhaps being over zealous in his attempt to set up plot points for number five.
Newell does as good a job as Cuarón at directing Daniel Radcliffe. I’d go so far as to say that his acting is passable. Credit should also go to editor Mike Audsley as it does seem that Harry is simply given less, facially at least, to do! Saying this, one gets the decided impression, which they don’t from the book, that Harry is in fact a smug, annoying do-gooder with infinite patience for enemies and friends alike. This stifles any empathy for his few moments adolescent angst. His new rival hero, Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) is earnest and swarthy enough, despite bearing a creepy resemblance to Prince William.

WARNING: SPOILER…  (click here to skip to next paragraph) Cedric’s character is left so foetal, however, with almost no introduction that when Ralph Fiennes’ brilliant Voldemort belts out the order to “kill the spare!” and finishes him off, it’s difficult to care. 

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As usual the adults are all well cast and wonderful. Miranda Richardson’s gutter sniping Rita Skeeter is notably tickling. David Tennant’s serpentine Barty Crouch Junior is suitably evil and he gets a chance to practice his regeneration again, a trick he should be a master of by now. Ralph Fiennes’ Voldermort steals the show though. I can’t quite make up my mind whether the adolescent actors have all markedly improved or if they’re all made to look so by the consistently and painfully shocking performance of Emma Watson as Hermione. In her defence I should retract the praise given to Audsley above and deliver a verbal kicking to Steve Kloves (screenwriter), for her Dickensian and repetitive dialogue. I know it sounds harsh but it really is horrible to watch and made worse by the impression given that she sees a place in the RSC in her future. Whoever is telling her she’s great should stop, it’s like telling an anorexic they’re getting prettier and prettier. As ever it’s left to Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) to hold it all together and outshine Daniel Radcliffe delightfully. He’s streaks and miles and eons etc. above the rest in terms of natural talent.

    The third film had its flaws of course but here it’s definitely the plus sides one will be searching for. It is fun and thankfully the great depression of the first two films is well and truly over. Don’t expect to be dazzled. Silly me. Gets me every time.

Jessica Fostekew


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