Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Film review by: Witney Seibold
I have not read any of the Harry Potter novels, and I do not intend to until I’ve seen all seven of the proposed “Harry Potter” films. I have rather liked most of the films to date, you see, and I’d rather keep my cinematic experiences pure; I don’t want to be the niggling Potterhead who whines about minutiae that have been altered or omitted in transition from page to screen.
Unfortunately, as the books get longer, and the stories more involved in themselves, the films have become oft-unclear. One almost needs the books as a primer. Good literary adaptations, from Shakespeare to Stan Lee, should be clear in themselves.
The fifth in the series, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is clear… most of the time. For the amount of characters, substories, secret plots, and all the rest, British TV director David Yates, and first-time Potter screenwriter Michael Goldenberg (who write “Contact” and “Peter Pan,” and took over for series regular Steve Kloves) have been able to keep the pace brisk, the tone appropriate, and most of the dealings on-track, despite the dropping of some important plot details (like, after Harry and Cho share their first kiss together, they’re never shown really romancing anywhere else, despite a single shot of them holding hands later). I’m sure details like this are filled out in the novels, but if you’re going to include bits like this in the film, flesh them out.
The story: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), tortured by the events from “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” is back in the real world, living with his horrible aunt and uncle and cousin (Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, Harry Melling). When his cousin is attacked by Dementors, the wraith-like prison guards of the wizard world, Harry is threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts, the wizard school that has become his real home over the last few years. Using magic under the age of 17 is illegal, you see, and wizards never use magic outside of the wizard world. This, of course, raises questions as to the practical application of wizarding. Could a wizard get a job in a factory or as an executive, or are the wizard world and the Muggle world so far separated that we poor magicless folk will never ever meet them? But I digress.
Harry is saved by Headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), but Harry’s hearing reveals certain things. For one, there is a secret 14-year-old wizard militia organized by friends of Harry’s parents called The Order of the Phoenix (including myriad characters from the previous films as well as some new ones), which has been specifically formed to fight the evil lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Second, that Voldemort himself is trying to amass his own militia. Third, that the Ministry of Magic, sort of the parliament of the wizard world, denies that Voldemort has been resurrected, and has appointed their own representative to teach at Hogwarts to spread propaganda.
The Ministry’s rep is Dolores Umbridge (a fantastic Imelda Staunton) who wears pink, hangs collector’s plates of mewing cats on her office walls, and has a penchant for red tape, fascistic regulations, and subtle creative student torture. Her smiles and terrifying, and her giggles are spine-melting. She also insists that Defense Against the Dark Arts should not involve any spells, but rather theory. The film’s screenwriter has insisted that there are no political allusions in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” but government/Ministry control of what is taught in private boarding schools does sound a bit political to me.
Harry and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) (who play a smaller role in this film than in the previous ones), won’t stand for this fascism, and realize that they’ll need more than grins and theory to really face the Dark Lord. They form their own student-level militia they call Dumbledore’s Army, and Harry teaches rogue students spells.
Umbridge’s power grows, and she eventually, somehow, becomes headmistress of Hogwarts. This all leads to a grad standoff between Harry and Voldemort.
To be complete, the film also includes the following: a creepy blonde waif named Luna Lovegood (which sounds like a Bond villainess, played by Evanna Lynch), a prankish uprising by Ron’s older brothers (James Phelps, Oliver Phelps), a species of leathery beasties that can only be seen by those who have witnessed a death, a spooky goth chick named Nymphodora (which I will doubtless see plenty of come Halloween), Harry’s first kiss with Cho Chang (Katie Leung), a ghoulish Death Eater named Beatrix LeStrange (Helena Bonham Carter) recently sprung prom prison and who killed Neville Longbottom’s (Matthew Lewis) parents, a series of torturous psychic lessons taught by Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), the firing of a Hogwart’s professor (Emma Thompson), a conspiracy of centaurs, an evil psychic bond between Harry and Voldemort, and a brief appearance by an inexplicably injured Hagrid (Robbie Cotrane).
Maggie Smith’s in the movie too. And Gary Oldman, and Brendan Gleeson, and David Thewlis, too. Oh, and I was told that an evil little elf will show up in the next movie. And Ginny Weasly (Bonnie Wright) makes eyes at Harry a lot. The showdown involves retrieving a certain crystal ball.
Whew.
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is the shortest of the Potter films, and is based on the longest of the novels, so of course details must be sacrificed; from what I hear there are entire subplots dropped. But the film could have stood to be long, if not to allow wonder and awe to creep back in, and to help stave off some of the confusion that inevitable will invade a story like this.
The problem with a lot of long-running series (in literature, film, or television), is that when the authors or creators run out of story ideas, or had an agenda all along, they will sacrifice the original awe and wonder readily apparent in the first chapter (the chapter that caused fans to fall in love with it in the first place) to the alter of tiresome tangential story arcs and dull interpersonal soap opera dynamics. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is a fine film and exciting to watch, but suffers a bit from this syndrome. There are too many characters that are not given the screentime they deserve.
The result is a well-paced monster mash.
But these are all complaints after-the-fact. While the film was going on, I was enraptured, and there are some beautiful moments throughout. Yates has done a fine job of making a modicum of sense from what was doubtless a traffic jam of a read. “Phoenix” still doesn’t approach the fun and awe of the first two Potter films, but is still better than the miserable muddy doldrums of the third.
