CoS Movie - SPOILERS (review)

[heiditandy]

You can also read the review (nicely formatted) here: 
http://www.fictionalley.org/fictionalleypark/forums/showthread.php?
&postid=389228#post389228 and here on TLC (where I am an editor): 
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/HP2ReviewHeidi.html

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That's three hours of my life I want back again...so I can see the 
whole movie all over.

Well, maybe not the last three minutes of it. I don't know what 
Steve Kloves and Chris Columbus were thinking about at the ending of 
Chamber of Secrets. Admittedly, it's always going to be a finale 
with less impact than Philospher's Stone, where Harry is going back 
to the Dursleys' for the first time since starting school, or 
Prisoner of Azkaban, where he has the prospect of a correspondence 
with Sirius to look forward to, or the mixture of sadness and 
expectation at the end of Goblet of Fire, but still.

The Hargid love was a little much. 

But back to the begining, and the 147 wonderful minutes in Chamber 
of Secrets. Yes, I know the running time is one hundred and sixty 
one minutes long, but you can't give awards for the trailer itself 
(although it did give those who stayed the interesting bit of 
information that the guy who played Mr Borgin was in the credits.) 

So, when do we get to see that scene?

There was also an unfortunately lame minute in which Harry was dying 
from the basilisk venom. That minute clocked on my watch as pushing 
110 seconds, though. In other words, Harry should've been dead 
before Fawkes showed up, unless of course Tom was lying about how 
much time he had left, which is entirely possible.

Now, about Tom. Well, the two Toms. Riddle and Felton. 

Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson) was sublime. While I don't want to 
mix canon (even movie canon) and fanon [loosely, extended 
characterization made by fans, sometimes reaching beyond the scope 
of what is discernible in canon], this is the Tom that I see in 
Viola's Dreamwalk Blue - someone who, at sixteen, made the choice to 
be ruthless and stop at nothing to get exactly what he wanted. He's 
a clever schemer, diabolical, and note-perfect, even in the absence 
of clever dialogue. A few small fragments of his performance in the 
Chamber scene don't actually make much sense, but that's more a 
glitch in direction than anything within his purview. Can someone 
please give this guy the career trajectory of Ewan MacGregor, and 
soon? He deserves it. 

The other Tom, Tom Felton, turned in a performance that was 
exponentially better than his work in Philosopher's Stone. This is 
the neurotic and immature child from Anna and the King - not the 
fake put-on job he did in Philospher's Stone (especially the troll 
scene). Not a hair or thread out of place - all the interesting 
elements were in the subtext. Now, I know I'm a notorious Draco-
redemption-theorist (I've read my Pride and Prejudice; I can see him 
with Hermione in a number of years, especially given his clear 
obsession with her that Lucius mentioned in the bookstore scene) but 
I saw it with someone who isn't, and she saw, in his interaction 
with Lucius (more on him later), with Snape, and with Hermione, a 
friendless, messed up little kid who doesn't quite grasp the real 
world with both hands. And given the way Lucius treats him (and the 
rest of the world) who can blame him for needing therapy? Lots and 
lots of therapy.

Mostly because it's all about Lucius. As others have said, it's a 
wonder that he wasn't in any scenes with the brilliant Kenneth 
Branagh, because the film would have melted. It's difficult to be 
evil without being over the top - Christian Coulson pulls it off 
because he's not supposed to seem evil right off the bat. He's 
supposed to throw you off guard when Riddle's real identity is 
clear. Lucius Malfoy is evil on - er with a stick, and his malice 
towards everyone, from his son on down, is delicious. His scenes are 
perfectly paced, which is something I didn't feel in many other 
scenes, especially in the first hour, where there were jumps from 
one context to another. It's no problem for book-canon devotees, but 
those who haven't read the books might fumble a few times. 

A bit of exposition on things like Percy's relationship with 
Penelope (which deserved a bit more screen time, and would've given 
Ginny some actual dialogue in the middle two hours of the film), the 
fact that Hermione had a brainstorm that sent her to the library, 
and perhaps even Ron's knowledge of who Riddle was (because, 
honestly, why else does Harry ask him about the Chamber?) would've 
been a good use of a few moments of screentime.

I don't want to sound like any deviation from canon is tantemount to 
blasphemy - certainly putting the Chamber exposition into Prof. 
McGonagalla's scene was fine, as was the decision to have the cake 
drop on Mrs Mason instead of Harry (but it would've been loffly the 
other way too). But there were little nuances that I missed, and the 
changes in Harry's confrontation with Lucius were possibly canon 
problematic (not the bit with the sock, but the hint that Lucius was 
about to use Avada Kedavra on him, and Lucius' not taking the 
diary). And it would've been much sweeter if Hermione had hugged 
Ron, like she did in Prisoner of Azkaban, and he had turned red and 
stammery. 

I know I've glossed over things like the vast improvement in the 
performances by the trio, the small but substantive performance from 
Edward Randell (Justin) and the wonders of the Quidditch match; they 
all made a terrific impact, and contributed to making this 
experience much more plesant than my first viewing of Philospher's 
Stone last year. 

In fact, the minute Philosopher's Stone ended, as a theaterfull of 
people could attest, I started kicking the chair in front of me as 
soon as the person sitting there stood up, because I was so 
frustrated by, among other things, some of the wasted time in the 
film (the bit with Harry and Hedwig in the snow is a particular 
frustration).

Not this time. 

And it's only two days and one hour before I can see it again.


heidi
http://www.hp2003.org