Movie review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

by John P. Meyer

Poor Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, reprising the wizard-in-training role that's brought him the kind of fame and fortune no one would dare to conjure up - not even a real wizard). No one in the magical or muggle realms seems to believe him when he tells them that Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, in full goblin garb) has returned, even though he (Harry) witnessed the magical rite responsible for same at the end of his last adventure (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire); furthermore, he's seen a fellow apprentice die as part of Voldemort's grand resurrectionist design.

All fairly weighty and troublesome stuff, this. Harry feels put-upon and isolated, and rightly so; don't blame him too much if he spends a great deal of the first hour of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix moping about and telling people over and over again how the Dark Lord is alive and getting weller all the time.

A few people actually do believe him, notably an underground magical action group calling itself the Order of the Phoenix and composed of, in part, Mrs. Weasely (Julie Walters), Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody (Brendan Gleeson), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) and Harry's godfather, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, in a sympathetic role for a change). And there's Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), of course - headmaster Dumbledore knows that Harry is correct, because he senses the powers darkness massing for some sort of malicious magical thunderstorm that'll clear out more than the gutters.

Who'll stop the rain? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

When we first encounter Harry, he's moping on a playground swing while being taunted by his onerous and mean-spirited muggle cousin, Dudley. Harry's moping because none of his friends and compatriots have contacted him all summer; it's one thing when Professor Dumbledore keeps mum - presumably he's got weighty issues to deal with, running the Hogwarts academy and playing politics with the Ministry of Magic - but what's up with Hermione and Ron? Not even a word of greeting from either one of them all summer long. It's enough to make an upstart wizard prodigy question his resolve.

Enter a North Texas-worthy thunderstorm cloaking a couple of demonic life-force suckers who accost Harry and Dudley in a storm drain. Harry dispatches the soul-sucking mosquitoes with a spell which carries the legal equivalent of the discharge of a .44 magnum on school grounds; he's brought before a Ministry of Magic trial board with the authority to expel him from Hogwarts and banish him from magical society forever - which, if this were another movie, would be a good venue for whipping out the .44 magnum - but instead he relies on the intervention of his ally in the good fight, Dumbledore, who pulls his chestnuts from the bureaucratic blaze in the nick of time.

Much of the rest of the movie chronicles political infighting among power groups at the Ministry; the head-in-the-sanders (led by Robert Hardy as Cornelius Fudge) are working, unbeknownst to them, in concert with the minions of Voldemort (led by Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, sporting a mane of flaxen white hair that an aging Fabio would give his left nut for). For various plot-thickening reasons they simply refuse to entertain the idea that Voldemort has returned.

So they appoint their staunchest, starchiest hard-liner to the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor - this person, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), is like the distillation of all the annoyingly authoritative grade school teachers you and I ever had. She puts Argus Filch (David Bradley, looking not a little like the Cryptkeeper) to work nailing up plaques detailing one new school regulation after another, until the hallway walls are covered and the poor old flunky must resort to ever-higher and shakier ladders to find space for posting them.

The worst of Umbridge's abuses revolve around her discouragement of the actual application of magic - she proposes that the studying of spells will be sufficient, without any actual practice. (Similar to sex education in our schools, now that I think of it.)

Harry soon comes to understand that the reason he's been shunned by his allies has to do with the Voldemort-laced dreams he's been experiencing: Dumbledore fears that the Dark Lord has established a psychic link with Harry, who might through this agency unwittingly reveal plans of their campaign to quash his (Voldemort's) return to power. So Harry surrenders himself to the tutelage of Severus Snape (the delightfully sneering Alan Rickman), who attempts to strengthen Harry's ability to mask his thoughts against outside mental agents looking to get in; in the process (and because this mental linking is very much a two-way street), Harry learns some surprising details about his father's early association with Snape.

While this is going on, Hermione and Ron have encouraged Harry to start up a private magical practice training course where magic will actually be... well... practiced. Since the current administration would frown on this, the plucky youngsters select the Room of Requirement as the site of their training - this is a (magical) space at Hogwarts which opens up to those who need it in furtherance of - I guess - stuff they really, really need. So the fine young wizards and witches unleash their wands and whail away. (In another, perhaps less CG-driven movie this might be done in the service of a sex education curriculum. But I digress...)

As usual, the visuals employed in the film are sumptuous and enthralling; new helmer David Yates exhibits few directorial faux pas, and the returning characters seem like more completely-rounded people than they were in last year's Hogwarts session (which, indeed, they actually are - one of the storytelling advantages of following youngsters through an ongoing long-term filmed drama is the fact that they will, unless developmentally challenged, grow into their roles, both onscreen and off).

Notable among the newly introduced players are Evanna Lynch (as the verging-upon-albino Luna Lovegood), a precocious and highly-perceptive loner who sees things that others don't; and the luscious Helena Bonham Carter (as amoral sorceress Bellatrix Lestrange), who demonstrates the full ferocity of unchecked magical spell-hurling while simultaneously stimulating our baser desires for kinky Suicide Girl sex. Speaking purely in theoretical terms.

Relating more of the outcome of events would be either a disservice (to those who haven't read the book) or a waste of time (to those who have), so I won't.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: "I hope there's pudding." - Luna Lovegood, on her return to the Hogwarts Academy

ROLE-PLAYING VS. REALITY: "Facing this stuff in real life is not like school." - Harry to his apprenticed magical practicioners

SOUNDS GOOD: "How was it?" - Ron to Harry, regarding his first kiss (with Cho Chang)

"Wet." - Harry's reply

• Staff
• Verified User
• Anonymous