The Prince and the Potter

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There comes a time in every man’s life when daddy’s gone away, and he has to stand on his own two feet. That may be a blunt and sobering theme for a climax to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but considering that at the end of Order of the Phoenix, our boy wizard learned that either he or his dark nemesis Lord Voldemort must die, it’s not an unexpected one. Like Luke Skywalker having to face Darth Vader, there’s no way out. Harry’s journey, like so many others of self-discovery, will be at times a frighteningly lonely one.

Knowing this makes Half-Blood an absolutely essential look at the relative calm before the storm at Hogwarts School. At least that’s the set-up to this light, touching, and at times cheekily comedic drama that turns quickly into a revenge-filled English horror flick with 30 minutes to go. So much of this spoiler landmine of a film is difficult to review for those who haven’t seen it, but it’s safe to say that Half-Blood proves no one and no place is incorruptible or invincible in the world of Harry Potter. Filled with changing alliances, misdirection and Rowling’s typical big reveal for Act 3, Half-Blood has all the hallmarks of a good Potter film applied with a softer touch.

It is true Phoenix had more explosions and high-flying fight sequences, but Half-Blood succeeds where some of the other Potter films have struggled. It successfully adapts J.K. Rowling’s novels—increasingly overstuffed with subplots—into a cohesive story for the screen; one zeroed in on our hero, his friends and his mentor. In doing so, Half-Blood provides many moments of genuine human drama between Harry, Hermoine and Ron as their friendships and romances take on added depth. These are characters we truly care about.

But it is the trio of old Brit-theater warhorses who keep the film from teetering too far into Twilight-style teen soap. Michael Gambon plays Albus Dumbledore with equal parts wisdom and razor edged mystery. New to the batch is Jim Broadbent who is revelatory as the quirky, fun-loving Prof. Horace Slughorn. An early retiree, Slughorn felt shamed because he imparted reckless wizardly instruction to his student Tom Riddle (the future Voldemort), but Dumbledore lures him back to his post at Hogwarts on the promise that he can have Potter as a prized student. And who can overlook Alan Rickman, the man whose odd rhythmic cadence makes Christopher Walken sound like a smooth-talking TV anchor.

Again, the special effects here are tasteful and inspiring. The black shroud whoosh of the Death Eaters in particular is a haunting thrill, while Dumbledore’s memory mirror is a fantasy fetishist’s dream. The desaturated cinematography that trips from snowdrift white to an eerie ink black pool brings Harry Potter to places at once gorgeous and desolate, but without much warmth to be found.

Half-Blood’s emphasis on character development feels like a huge payoff for fans of the books, but probably won’t win over the uninitiated. This is the story of the gauntlet being thrown down, instead of the gauntlet being run. At the end of the film Harry knows what he must do, but has no idea how he’s going to do it, and he’s almost literally looking out off a cliff into the unknown future. If these final three films in the series can be viewed as a trilogy, Half-Blood is the worthy first chapter to be followed in 2010 and 2011 with the darker and more climactic The Deathly Hallows I and II.