Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Rating

Director

Chris Columbus

Screenplay

Steve Kloves (Novel: J.K. Rowling)

Length

152 min.

Starring

Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Daniel Radcliffe, Fiona Shaw, Harry Melling, Richard Griffiths, Ian Hart, Julie Walters, Bonnie Wright, Chris Rankin, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Matthew Lewis, Tom Felton, John Cleese, Alan Rickman

MPAA Rating

PG (For some scary moments and mild language)

Review

The world of Harry Potter opens up the imagination of the child in each of us with this first in a series of films based on the celebrated children’s novels.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone introduces us to the young wizard Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) whose parents were killed when he was a baby. As he discovers his heritage, he finds himself enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As he learns more about himself, he becomes quick friends with goof-off Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and the bookworm Hermione Granger (Emma Watson).

Roaming the halls of Hogwarts is a bevy of talented British thespians who regularly show up their actors-in-training young counterparts. As the headmaster of the private wizarding school, Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris) is a fatherly figure whose love of children is tempered by his love of being childlike. Assistant headmaster and also one of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s teachers is Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith) whose stern, yet caring discipline of the children is a perfect fit. The last, but certainly not least of the magic professors at the school is Severus Snape (Alan Rickman). Teaching potions because the Defense Against the Dark Arts post is already filled, he loathes children and his motives for teaching them are suspect as he quickly emerges as one of the more sinister characters at the school.

But, what would school life be without bullies. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) adeptly commands a legion of goons from the house of Slytherin (one of four familial groups of children at the school). His perpetual dislike of Potter and his friends adds the right measure of malice to the mixture.

Director Chris Columbus might have seemed the right person to direct kids in a children’s film but as the movie drags on through backstory and exposition, we soon realize that while he can certainly obtain good performances from kids, his style of directing is too limited and overindulgent.

Before this film was released, I’d never heard of Harry Potter, better yet had read them. However, after seeing the film and hearing good things from other adult friends, I picked up the story. The first book is as cluttered as the first film. It is necessary to establish the characters, but so few of the scenes are important to the narrative. Steve Kloves’ adaptation fits perfectly with the book, but as we are only expected to understand the characters and go along with the story, the first film fits perfectly.

It’s really a difficult task for many adults to sit through films that are based on children’s literature. While we all have fond memories of The Wizard of Oz, when you actually read the source, you learn that films can often improve upon the stories. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is different. There’s a dark undercurrent to the story of a boy whose parents are killed by an evil wizard named Voldemort and that his mother’s love is what saved him from being killed. It establishes a rather evil world where peace is only temporary and the Dark Lord is attempting to return to attempt again to dominate the entire world.

The biggest difference between the book and film is that the book, which is set in a fictitious world of witches and wizards, is very clearly set in the real world. We know from the pages of the novel that this magical world is merely hidden from the view of those who would be afraid of it. This is exemplified in Harry’s aunt, uncle and cousin who are afraid of what he might do and angry that they have been inconvenienced with such a dangerous breed. The film hits this heavy but doesn’t do very well at establishing how enmeshed in the world these wizards are. It’s a film fantasy that focuses too much on the fantasy and too little on the reality.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is enjoyable enough and having seen the film and now read the books, I can see great potential for the series if the creators don’t cater to the fantastic and start focusing on the realism.

Review Written

July 21, 2007