Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
It has so much fun and magic, you'd think it could not all be contained in a single movie. On the other hand, it also lasts long enough to be a movie and a half, and you feel every minute.
This remarkably faithful adaptation of the phenomenally popular J.K. Rowling book should please the book's millions of fans. Director Chris Columbus, backed by one of the largest crews ever to work on a motion picture, presents a physical representation of the wondrous world of Harry Potter exactly as one imagines it when reading the book.
It is destined to become a classic.
The secret of the book's appeal, along with its sense of humor, is the way Rowling mixes fact with fancy, giving a matter-of-fact treatment to witches and wizards and magic potions. Broomsticks fly, trolls are mean and ugly, and vicious three-headed dogs are named Fluffy. This film captures this essence of the book, as well as its spirit.
Daniel Radcliffe stars as Harry, a boy mistreated by the simply awful relatives who raise him, and who learns on his 11th birthday that he is the son of two accomplished wizards. He is invited to an elite school of wizardry, where he will learn how to perform all the really neat magic that only wizards can do.
At the school, Hogwarts - Rowling has a way with names - Harry meets most of the rest of the characters in this well-populated tale. His best friends are the smart showoff Hermione Granger (Emma Watson, the best of the film's child stars by far) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, who is mostly a waste).
Among the notable actors portraying teachers are wonderful Maggie Smith in a witch's hat as a stern but softhearted teacher, an almost unrecognizable Richard Harris as the wise wizard who runs the school, Robbie Coltrane as a Falstaffian school functionary who has trouble keeping secrets and Alan Rickman as the dark and glaring teacher of magic potions. John Hurt also contributes a particularly charming characterization as a magic wand salesman.
Columbus pulls everything together by going back to his roots as Steven Spielberg's protege. Like his mentor, Columbus creates a sense of childlike awe and wonder. He has tapped into a universal yearning to cast off our jaded cynicism and go back to a time when everything seemed sparkling and mysterious, and when anything was possible.
Unfortunately, he creates this sense of childlike awe and wonder in exactly the same way Spielberg does, and with the same frequency (too often). Again and again and again he has his characters stare wide-eyed and open-mouthed until you wish they would just close their mouths already. Childlike awe and wonder are one thing, but after awhile they just start to look stupid. Plus, you begin to worry that something might fly in there.
The Spielbergian effect is emphasized by the pounding, unending music by Spielberg's favorite composer, John Williams. It is often played louder here than the dialogue. And like Spielberg, Columbus puts his trust entirely in the special effects that are almost as constant and unavoidable as the music. For the most part, the computer-generated effects are amazing but they remain resolutely two- dimensional.
Columbus wrote the child action-adventure movie "The Goonies," which has unaccountably been granted cult status by an entire generation. The tone of "Harry Potter" is much like what that film wanted to be, with mystery and surprise around every corner and the characters saying "whoa!" and "wow!" at every possible opportunity.
The difference is that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" works from a solid story. Steve Kloves' intelligent script concisely distills Rowling's wickedly clever book, which has thrilled millions of readers, young and old.
Fans of the book will not be disappointed. And those who have not read it will be utterly enchanted