Several of my closest friends and family members have asked me what I thought about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie two days after it opened. They assumed that I’d already seen it. I was slightly taken aback. Hello, I have a job, I have a life, there’s the possibility that I haven’t had time to go see it yet. Of course, these are my closest family and friends, so they all know I had already seen it.
On the surface, it was, by far, the best adaptation of any of the books. (I say that purposely leaving out movies one and two because the books were childish and simplistic, and a movie adaptation posed little challenge.) I enjoyed the scope of the movie. It boldly took on teenage angst, good versus evil, the ties of friendship and the theme of life and death. None of these topics were overworked by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the book’s overall theme of life and death, was only alluded to.
Like the book, the movie’s tone was dark punctuated with several bright spots. The best part for me was Lavender Brown. I know she’s not supposed to be a character that you love, but Jessie Cave, though slightly over-done was perfect for the role. She flounced her blonde curls perfectly, and though she stared rather sappily at Ron (Rupert Grint) I bought it, hook, line and sinker.
Daniel Radcliff (The scarred wonder himself) was also surprising. Though the liquid luck potion, Felix Felices, didn’t make Harry act almost drunk in the book, it was a good interpretation of the character growth. In this story he was far more confident and far less whiney than other years. It was a pleasure to watch the actor and the character come into a new level of maturity.
I had a hard time with Ginny in the movie. The director tried to build the teenage sexual tension between her and Harry, but it felt in-genuine, forced and a little odd. Two scenes in particular struck me as ideas that were mistakenly put into the movie from the trash can filled with writer’s discarded ideas. Once where she tried to seductively feed him a Christmas tart, and once where she noticed his shoe laces were untied and did the honors herself. This frustrated me because I felt like it was poor writing and completely unrealistic. Stick them in a broom closet together becuase they have to hide from Filch, put them in a room entirely filled with other kissing couples, or have Harry and Ron bust in on Ginny kissing her boyfriend (like the book.) Things like that can build sexual tension without being just plain weird.
The ending was a pretty large deviation for the book. I personally didn’t feel like it did the characters justice. Specifically Dumbledore. (SPOILERS AHEAD…though if you haven’t read the book by now, you almost deserve to be spoiled) The scene where Harry is keeping his promise to Dumbledore by forcing him to drink the potion to get to the locket in the cave was severely disappointing. When I read the scene for the first time, I hardly breathed. The movie didn’t show the depth to Dumbledore that the scene should require. Harry didn’t have to lie in order to keep the promise to force his headmaster to finish every last drop. I felt as though that was a distinct coming-of-age scene for Harry where he dug deep and was able to find strength that hadn’t been tapped before. Also, Dumbledore wasn’t begging Harry to stop, he wasn’t fearful, emotional or broken in the movie. I was equally unmoved. And I was a bit cranky about that because I’d worn waterproof mascara.
Honestly, the most negative things about the movie to me were the moments I found myself saying, “that’s not what happened in the book! Harry was under the Invisibility Cloak, not hiding around a stupid corner.” At which point my husband looked at me as though I had grown a third arm. I realized in that moment, for the enjoyment of the two upcoming movies, I should not touch, look at or think about the seventh book.
I would highly recommend the movie. Just keep the book on the shelf until after.
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