“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is Best of the Bunch

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” had its American opening this week-end; the Brits had first dibs. The fourth movie in the franchise brought in $100 million in its first three days of release amid much anticipation. Just about everything is right with the film, and it is the strongest of the bunch.

Elsewhere, one can read of the state-of-the-art effects, and the darker, more violent story. The cast members deserve much more attention than this short piece can offer – suffice it to say there isn’t a bad performance anywhere, and some very fine bits of work among the supporting cast as well as the leads. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry has done other projects between Potter flicks in what may be a futile attempt to avoid type-casting, but he remains Harry in part because he can act. Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley is the best sidekick in film since Felix Leiter left James Bonds’ side. And Emma Watson as Hermione Granger may have the most promising future as an actress simply because she’s the strongest of the three.

That said, the magic of Harry Potter has always been the pen of J.K. Rowling. In this part of the Potter Saga, she has enough sense to treat her 14-year-old hero as a 14-year-old, with all of the hormonally charged confusion that goes with it. The ball, wherein boys must dance with girls and must ask them for dates, is probably more traumatic than fighting the dark lord – Harry even says so much. Fortunately for the students at Hogwarts, and elsewhere, 14 only lasts a year. Within a decade, it will be just a bad memory.

Another part of Ms. Rowling’s genius lies in the wizarding world and its political problems. It is, sadly for the wizards, not far removed from the 21st century outside Ms. Rowling’s world. Death Eaters disrupt the Quidditch World Cup, and can anyone feel completely comfortable about the World Cup of Soccer next June in Germany in light of the war on terror? Dumbledore treats Harry to a memory of an inquisitorial trial, where prisoners are offered freedom if they name names, but the scene wasn’t quite tropical enough to be Guantanamo. And there is an attempt by the wizarding government (the Ministry of Magic) to hush up a murder, which if not out of the Washington Post at least figures in a great many books one might find at the airport posing as non-fantasy.

There is a positive counter-point to these parallels. At the ball, one sees 14-year-olds of every race and culture imaginable, dancing together at a great party. As Dumbledore himself put it later in the film, “We come from different places. We speak different tongues, but our hearts beat as one.” The magic of cosmopolitanism is irresistible; it is the only cure for the “clash of civilizations.”

Lastly, much has been made of the various social models in Europe. Peter Mandelson, an EU Commissioner and pal of Tony Blair, was caught on camera saying, “If the French social model is so great, why is the country in flames?” What does it say about the UK when the richest woman in the nation is an author, rather than the queen or a business leader? One is tempted to say that Britain has got back its Great.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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