Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)December 23rd, 2001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"Mr. Potter. Our new celebrity."
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane. Directed by Chris Columbus. Rated PG-13.
I've long jumped on the "Harry Potter" bandwagon. I've read and reread the four novels and I am giddily waiting for the fourth, which seems forever stuck in its perhaps too effective anticipation-building stage. I am convinced that J.K. Rowling's work is a literary masterpiece as well as a pop-culture phenomenon; she will be remembered both alongside Tolkien as a great fantasy writer and alongside Roald Dahl as a gifted author with an uncanny gift to penetrate the hearts and minds of children. It should be noted, then, that I went into Chris Columbus's film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone convinced that there was no way I was going to dislike it. This review should be read with that fact in mind.
The story should be familiar to everyone who hasn't been in solitary confinement for the last three years or so. Like most fairy tale heroes, Harry Potter emerges from a traumatic childhood to do extraordinary things. He lives with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley on Privet Drive, in a cupboard under the stairs. He's abused in various exaggerated ways until a mysterious letter arrives and turns his family's contempt into fear. It seems that Harry Potter is a wizard, and a famous one at that, and he has been invited to attend the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry is picked up by Hagrid, a giant "gamekeeper" at Hogwarts, and is taken to Diagon Alley, a wizard street concealed in the heart of London where he can pick up the things he will need for his first year at the School, including a magic wand, an owl and a cauldron. Then Harry takes the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. Hogwarts itself, of course, is a fascinating place, with changing staircases, a magical sorting hat and wizard and witch professors that are by turns stern, kind, irritating or downright evil. And then there's the third floor corridor, which no one is allowed to enter for fear of dying a very painful death...
From the film's opening shot of the "Privet Drive" street sign, set to the spine-tingling first notes of John Williams' accomplished, Danny Elfman-like score, we are drawn into the universe that Rowling and, to a lesser extent, director Chris Columbus have created. Columbus's approach is indeed mostly straightforward and "workmanlike" -- a word that has been thrown around derisively to signify his alleged "lack of imagination" -- but there is the occasional punch in the gut (the unexpectedly brutal flashback to the demise of Lily and James Potter; the entire opening sequence) that shows that if we're not working with a Steven Spielberg here, we are working with his one-time protege.
It's a good sign that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone feels rushed at two-and-a-half hours. I would easily have sat twice as long. The movie jumps from event-to-event like it has a checklist that it has to fulfill (and it does), and its abruptness was sometimes distracting. I wonder if I would have felt this way had I not read the book first; perhaps I longed for the leisurly, flowing pace that would have been impossible to translate to the screen.
But I quibble. The movie is faithful to the book, and it retains its genuine sense of awe and wonder. The performances from newcomers Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are uniformly solid, and the all-star British cast provides a formidable background of support. When the credits rolled, I got the same feeling that I got when I put down the novel: I was disappointed that it's fiction. If that's not a touchstone of excellence for a fantasy film, I don't know what is.
Grade: A-
Up Next: Amelie
©2001 Eugene Novikov
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