The latest Potter saga is a sophisticated mix of thrills and drama, writes Michael Dywer
The fifth Harry Potter picture opens on a hot summer's day in Little Whinging, but the bright sunshine abruptly gives way to torrential rain, signalling the darkness of tone to follow. As Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) comes to the rescue of his obnoxious cousin, of all people, he casts a spell, breaking the Hogwarts rule of using magic outside of school. A talking envelope promptly arrives at his home on Privet Drive, threatening Harry with expulsion.
It has not been the best of summers for Harry, who hasn't heard from anyone at Hogwarts since his confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), not even from his closest friends, Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson). Now he has to cope with a smear campaign in the Daily Prophet - that tabloid with moving pictures changes his surname to Plotter - and faces a kangaroo court organised by the Minister of Magic (Robert Hardy).
Growing up is hard enough for a boy in his late teens without all these complications, but there is worse to come when Professor Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) is appointed Hogwart's latest Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Pink is the new black, as Umbridge, wearing matronly outfits that are all in shocking pink, projects a benign image that briefly conceals her sinister, controlling nature. She issues so many draconian "educational decrees" that they eventually cover the towering walls of the school atrium.
Fortunately for Harry, he still has some defenders. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) supports him in the disciplinary hearing. Harry's godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) introduces him to the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society formed to combat Voldemort. And Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody (Brendan Gleeson) brings Harry to London for that fateful meeting at 12 Grimmauld Place (an address which, if you didn't know is there, is not there).
While yet another exciting Quiddich game would have been welcome, the new movie offers several dazzling set-pieces bookended by Harry's thrilling aerial journeys to London - the first with Moody and his colleagues, flying on their broomsticks over the Thames by night and, much later, travelling on skeletal winged creatures known as Thestrals.
As the dramatic bridge between the earlier movies and the two that will complete the saga, this film is, of necessity, the most explicatory of the series since the first. And while it is based on the longest of JR Rowling's books to date, Michael Goldenberg's screenplay is a model of narrative compression.
Goldenberg is new to the series, as is director David Yates, whose best work has been for TV (State of Play, Sex Traffic, The Girl in the Café). Building on his proven record as an adept director of actors, Yates seizes upon the opportunities for visual spectacle, nimbly following the action throughout the striking, elaborately detailed sets.
Among the key cast additions, young Irish newcomer Evanna Lynch is perfectly mysterious and ethereal as student Luna Lovegood, and Helena Bonham Carter flamboyantly plays the Azkaban prison escapee aptly named Bellatrix Lestrange.
Stealing scene after scene, Staunton revels in her subtle portrayal of the duplicitous Umbridge as a creature of sweetness and fright, whose love for kittens is not extended to humankind. As the three young lead actors continue to develop their roles with assurance and maturity, Radcliffe rises admirably to new challenges as Harry, when the pupil has to become the teacher, and when he experiences his first screen kiss under magically conjured mistletoe.
