Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Rating: ***1/2

This was the film that was supposed to put it all together,to put it out there what made Harry Potter one of the most successful book series ever and the highest grossing film series of all time. Yes,there were the “death eaters” who lived amongst your midst,the dementors who sucked the life out of you,and the evil that could not be named. And yes there were the friendships,the magic,the love and the longing often bespoken.

But what put J K Rowling’s books apart was how she connected the two worlds,how one was intrinsically interlinked with the other,and how three orphans borne of almost similar circumstances ended up in three different corners of the tale because of entirely the choices they made. And she achieved this in a setting common to all children everywhere across the world – the unknown world of a new school,where you encountered often incomprehensible lessons,and where the chances of encountering a good teacher were almost as good as running into a bad one.

Even as the series sometimes threatened to drift,Rowling brought these running,yet disparate,strands deftly together in her grand finale,the Deathly Hallows. We understood who Dumbledore was,we realised what connected Harry to Voldemort and why one must die for the other to live,we figured why it was natural for Harry to seek the Horcruxes (pieces of Voldermort’s soul) than the Hallows (the instruments of ultimate power),we even figured why he was given that choice,and we ultimately comprehended the pwer of goodness and why evil intrinsically fell short – in perhaps nothing else than in the person of Severus Snape.

Where does the film Deathly Hallows Part 2 (3D) fit in? It puts together some beautiful montages,but somewhere misses the grand picture. In rushing through the episodes in the last scenes of Harry Potter’s life as we know it in full 3D glamour,it gives us little sense of these being those conclusive images.

Pity those who haven’t read the books and those who haven’t brushed up on their Deathly Hallows before venturing into the hall. Like it has progressively done,the David Yates-directed film makes no excuses for the Johnnys Come Lately. It’s a blur from the first scene of Harry grieving by the side of Dobby’s grave – the elf died in Part I – to the break-in into the vault of wizard bank Gringotts,to the majestic escape on a dragon and the return to Hogwarts.

When the film finally takes a pause,you realise it is for the much-awaited Battle of Hogwarts,in 3D. However,for a battle,it is surprisingly lacking in all passion and tragedy,even when loved ones die. The film does pick up briefly when the ever-dependable Maggie Smith as Prof McGonagall rises to Harry’s defence in defiance of Snape,but these are but brief interludes in the CGI-infused images of giants,death eaters and men in armour running literally into each other.

Yates does a brave job of trying to follow Harry instead as he tries to piece together his ultimate clash with Voldemort. But it’s too far gone for this film to turn into an introspective piece on the workings of its characters’ minds. Even the final Voldemort-Snape encounter is devoid of all the malice it seethed with in the book.

What keeps Deathly Hallows Part 2 going is the dedication of its senior cast. With barely a face to work with,Ralph Fiennes has given us a Voldemort that goes far beyond the book; as the series progressed and layers were peeled off him,He Who Must Not be Named grew in Fiennes’s hands into a man with a past,and in this final film,that past speaks to us in his unspoken quest for acceptance.

Alan Rickman has done an equally grand and difficult job as Snape,the guy who was to be hated even when none of us knew why. Reports tell us he was the only one Rowling told the entire story to,right when Harry was still 11,to give him an idea of the man he was to portray. The fact that he understood lies in the tear he sheds as he clutches Harry at the end,just one drop.

There are others of course — Jim Broadbent,Emma Thompson,Helena Bonham Carter,David Thewlis,Michael Gambon and many others – who gave the films the gravitas these needed among the cast of young and often inexperienced actors.

That brings us ultimately to Daniel Radcliffe,Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Deathly Hallows Part 2 is ultimately all about Harry,and Hermione and Ron have little to do but stand by him. And with his best required of him,Radcliffe puts in one of his most measured performances here.

However,as we bid goodbye to a story that has lived with us as a book and a film for 14 years now,we can unabashedly be grateful for them for one thing: in all the growing up they did,in the film and out of it,in their individual quests for a life after Harry Potter,in their first steps towards it,they never outgrew being what we imagined Harry,Hermione and Ron would turn out to be like.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com