Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
Release Date: November 19, 2010
Director: David Yates
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Summary/Review:
The source book for this movie is essentially two stories: one a mystery/road trip and one a war novel. This movie adapts the first story. The big question regarding splitting the adaptation of the seventh novel into two movies is if it is justifiable or simply a cash grab. I’d say that by and large there’s not much that could’ve been pared out of this movie, and since sitting in a theater for 4 hours is not ideal, splitting it into two movies makes sense. Of course, I never saw either movie in the theaters and pretty much binged them back to back, so what do I know.
The adaptation does abridge the novel quite a bit, and as in The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince, I think the filmmakers do a good job of getting to the essence of the source material without getting into all the details. One scene that stands out as something that’s not vital to the story, but I nevertheless like it because it’s cinematic, is when Harry and Hermione dance together in the tent. It’s a moment of having fun and release from all the tensions of the horcrux hunt, and even a moment of attraction between the two, although it dissipates as quickly as it begins. I also like that when Hermione reads “The Tale of Three Brothers” it is illustrated with stylized animation.
The cliffhanger is rather abrupt, but its hard not to see the two movies as anything other than one narrative.
Rating: ***1/2
