Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half Blood PrinceBB
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, et al.
Released: 2009

Due to the round robin of directors tapped for the Harry Potter film series, the quality of the movies thus far has varied wildly, from the solid first and second films to the highly inventive Prisoner of Azkaban to the unpolished Goblet of Fire. Director David Yates took the helm for Order of the Phoenix, and will see J. K. Rowling’s series through to its cinematic conclusion. While I enjoyed Order of the Phoenix, I wasn’t entirely convinced that the franchise was in good hands. After viewing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, however, my doubts are assuaged. David Yates has transformed the sixth installment of the series into an emotional and rousing film.

Purists beware. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince takes some liberties with the source material. Entirely absent are the Dursleys, Harry’s abusive biological family, and Professor Sibyl Trelawney, who plays a small but pivotal role in the novel. Furthermore, several scenes are either inserted or amended. For instance, when Harry is left bloodied, petrified, and concealed on the Hogwarts Express, it isn’t the shapeshifter Tonks who finds him, as in the novel, but the quirky, enigmatic Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood. For some, I’m sure these omissions, additions, and amendments are cause for concern. The net result, though, is that the film maintains a strong thematic unity and solid pacing.

The sixth novel was marked by romantic developments in the lives of our young heroes. While in these book these scenes seemed to drag on for pages, the medium of film was able to address them much more succinctly. Thus the chapter “Hermione’s Helping Hand”, whose only purpose in the book is to show Hermione surreptitiously helping Ron retain his position as Gryffindor keeper, is here handled in a single, tight scene that lasts only a minute or two. The romantic story arcs are still present, but they don’t dominate the story to the extent they do in the book.

There are no real stand-out performances in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but the acting is solid and enjoyable throughout. Michael Gambon finally comes into his own as Dumbledore, though I still don’t feel he can compete with the late Richard Harris’s portrayal of the old, odd wizard. Alan Rickman’s Snape is as oily smooth as ever, and the trio has aged gracefully. Newcomer Jim Broadbent embodies the soul of the ambitious, social-butterfly potions professor Horace Slughorn, though the absence of walrus mustaches disturbed me greatly. Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy also becomes far more emotionally textured than he has ever been before.

The film isn’t perfect. While most of the film’s omissions are forgivable and perhaps even laudatory, a few plot holes are left unaddressed. One key pensieve flashback scene from the novel, in which we learn of Voldemort’s parentage, is missing from the film, and this information seems to me of great thematic importance. Hopefully director Yates has simply shuffled the scene into the forthcoming two-part adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The ending, while emotional, still felt a bit rushed, and the climactic battle that concludes the book is all but absent.

As I sit here now, I can probably think of many other little quibbles with various aspects of the film. But sitting in the theatre, I was enthralled by the film from start to finish. The magic and mystery of Harry Potter is still very much alive.