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Film
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The second film to spring forth from J.K. Rowling’s popular series of children’s books goes a long way towards amping up the dramatic tension promised by the source material.
Friday, November 15, 2002
By Charlie Brown
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The conservative bent that wrapped up the ‘80s can be summed up by Cannon Films. Taking such films as Rambo: First Blood II as their cue, the Cannon group produced a string of low budget action films, including such schlocky classics as the Missing In Action and American Ninja series, that relied upon the formula of tough white American soldiers fighting private wars against Hispanic, Asian and Middle Eastern baddies. The problem was they made their heroes too invincible, draining all of the tension out of their films.
And this was the problem with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. While the first book in J.K. Rowling’s series made it clear that Harry’s life was a struggle, the movie (once he finally made it to Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry) was nothing but vignettes where the audience waits for Harry to win without a single doubt that he would do so. And while the sequel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets goes a long way towards amping up tension, it still has intrinsic storytelling weaknesses.
Chamber of Secrets starts with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) once again in the English suburban hell of his aunt and uncle. While he now has his own room, they still find many ways too abuse the young wizard. When an elf named Dobby mysteriously appears in his bedroom begging Harry not to return to school, Harry becomes more determined than ever to see his friends. With the help of Ron Weasly (Rupert Grint) and his brothers, Harry can return to school.
There are returning characters Hermione (Emma Watson), the wicked Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) and professors Dumbledore (Richard Harris in his final screen performance) and McGonagall (Maggie Smith). Also, there is a new teacher Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Brannagh), whose charms sway the girls but whose mouth seems to outreach his skill.,/p>
And then there is the title mystery. Someone or something paralyzes students and leaves various messages that the Chamber of Secrets, a mysterious vault built by the wizard Slitheren, has been opened - its evil may shut down the school forever. As usual, it is up to Harry and friends to save the day.
Chamber of Secrets definitely improves upon its predecessor, both in storytelling and in direction. Where director Chris Columbus let the special effects take the place of actual interesting camera work previously, here he improves his style. No one will mistake him for Spielberg any time soon, but it is heartening to see that this movie had some attention to craft. In addition, writer Steve Kloves (also returning from the original) made strives towards solving the Rambo problem.
Still while the script handles action better, it relies too heavily on a dramatic device as old as playwriting: deus ex machina. In almost every major obstacle or conflict Harry faces, an outside source is the key to a victory, much like the Greeks had Zeus descending to save the day. Certainly, Kloves stuck closely to Rowling’s book, but it is still a hallmark of lazy writing.
Luckily, the acting remains as strong as ever. All of the children spring forth from the brightly colored novel covers and inhabit their roles as if they were born to play them. It is certainly no shame that Harris ends a brilliant career as the wizened sorcerer, although there could have been more shading to his character. In fact, all of the professors are much more one-sided this time around, except Brannagh who steals the show with his hammy scene thievery.
The special effects wizards certainly raised the bar also. The scenery is incorporated so well that it is very hard to tell what is a set and what is computer generated. Scenes with oversized spiders and a menacing tree are incredibly rendered and quite scary.
With Columbus and Kloves aboard through the whole series (at least as producers), it is hard to tell if each Potter film will get better or if it will level off at an acceptable mediocrity. Fans of the book seem to be as slavishly devoted to the first film as they were to the writing, so it probably won’t matter until those kids look like adults. Hopefully they’ll make it harder for Harry to achieve his goals or else even the adolescent audience may well get bored.
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