[HPFGU-Movie] YAY! I've seen it!!

[artsylynda at aol.com]

I've been reading through some of the posts on here, and I've read lots of 
reviews, and I have to say, in my own, not humble at all opinion, Dan, Emma and 
Rupert have matured into their roles, matured as actors, and have "become" 
Harry, Hermione and Ron -- and I thought they were perfectly cast to start with.  
Rupert did a wonderful job whenever he had a scene -- he's not mugging for 
the camera in this one.  Emma was very natural and did a great job, but it 
bothered me that she not only had some of Ron's lines, but some of Harry's as 
well!!  Ah well, blame the screen writer.  Dan, dear Dan, and yes, I'm prejudiced 
(I'd adopt that kid in a heartbeat), showed a wide range of emotions quite 
well, I thought.  The person who said his crying didn't sound natural -- when I 
lost my mother, I cried exactly like Dan was crying, gutwrenching sobs, anger, 
grief, fear, all that mixed in together.  And I was an adult (25) when she died 
(she died the day before we would've gotten home to visit -- we lived 500 
miles from them -- I kicked myself for years for not getting home a day sooner. . 
. .)  I think we view actors' performances based on our own emotional 
history.  If we've had serious grief or serious shocks in our lives, tremendous ups 
and downs, as Harry has, then Dan's performance probably seems brilliant to us 
(it does to me).  If you're younger, haven't been through so much trauma, then 
it probably doesn't ring true.  But it did ring true to me.  

Visually, Cuaron has created a masterpiece.  I'm an artist (sculptor) and the 
use of color to set the mood is absolutely brilliant.  The little touches 
like Beaky dragging a talon in the water -- superb.  And Harry's joy in flying -- 
very much the Harry I know and love from the books.  I wish they'd done some 
things differently -- the Patronus should've been the stag, not the shield, 
IMO, but the Dementors flying instead of gliding made the shield make more 
sense.  I didn't like the goggles in the Quidditch game -- they distracted the eye 
from Harry's expressions, IMO.  The robes themselves were pretty cool.  I 
wouldn't have thougth the Seeker would be "# 7" since he's so important to the 
team -- that was a surprise.

I'm hoping Dan gets an Oscar nomination -- there are other young performers 
who've done work that didn't impress me as much who got nominated, and some 
even won (Tatum O'Neill, for instance -- she was wonderful in "Paper Moon" but 
didn't need to show the extremes of emotion and so forth that Dan does here).  I 
read somewhere Cuaron is interested in coming back for book 5 or 6 (I think 
it was -- maybe it was 6 or 7?).  I'd love to see him take on the stories that 
are even darker than this one.

I had planned all along to see the film at least 5 times in theaters, and I 
am a busy person and live a long way from theaters.  Now I'm wondering how many 
times I can squeeze it in before it leaves the theaters!  The film was so 
visually rich, it will take many viewings to see everything.


Lynda 
* * *
". . .the cat's among the pixies now." Mrs. Figg, OoP


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