The whole world will know my joy when I see a movie remake of a book and am completely satisfied. Today, however, is not that day.
I may be a little behind the times but I finally was able to sit down and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1. Let me be quite frank for those of you who have not seen it, it is not the book. It’s not bad by any means but it certainly is not the book.
It should be understood that the experience of reading a book differs greatly from the experience of watching a film. Regardless of how good an actor or actress is, there is too much we learn about characters from their internal thoughts for the actor or actress to portray them as we read them. Also, there are some things in books which it is okay to spend time on but when it comes to a film, the viewers are likely to get bored. I tried to do my best to take into account these two particular details.
The seventh film is by far my favorite yet, though I still need to see the eighth. I felt it took the story it was given and cut away those boring parts as best as it could to give us the essentials in part one of a two-part film. This part is even quite hefty, coming in around 2:15. In that time we see Harry, Ron and Hermione choose to skip their final year of school, a wedding, them break into the Ministry of Magic, wandering in the woods, a visit to Harry’s birthplace and the three’s eventual capture. That’s a lot of story.
My favorite line of the movie came early on after Fred and George took a drink of a Harry Potter polyjuice potion, looked at each other and exclaimed in unison, “We’re twins.” It was short, grabbing for a laugh but perfectly timed in a tense situation and I could do nothing to stop myself from laughing along. It wasn’t the only time I laughed either. I get the feeling that the jokes we’re scattered throughout to keep the film as light as possible when dealing with suck dark matter so it was better for the kids. I, personally, was glad it was there.
There are two parts of the film I was quite unhappy with and it’s because they glossed over two details from the books, neither of which would have stolen much screen time. The first missing piece was early on when Harry left the Dursleys. In the book, Dudley lets on that he might miss Harry. He lets on that somehow living together for seventeen years he’s grown to like Harry. It’s not an important detail but it does give us an aspect of Harry that might help with later parts of the film. Harry gets people to care about him. If someone who repulses Harry so much can learn, then who can’t?
The second detail I missed out on came at the end when Harry is burying Dobby. In the book, Harry creates a gravestone to place atop the grave and it reads, “Here lies Dobby, a free elf.” I don’t know about any of you but for me this was the closest I came to tears while reading the entire series. While reading, it made me realize that Harry truly felt a connection to those who died for the cause. It made me realize that those who died weren’t necessarily doing it for Harry either; they were fighting because they were free to fight. If that image could make me well up while reading, just think of what it might have done had I seen it upon the screen. It was a sentimental shot which missed it’s full potential.
Though my mind is a little rusty in the actual events from the book, I didn’t need them to watch the film. I wasn’t shouting that they forgot this or left out that. I was content with the details added and the ones left out didn’t bother me too much, if at all.
If you’re like I was and have yet to see the seventh Harry Potter, I recommend you go out and watch it.