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		Points of View November 22, 2001 Guest Column © 2001 Joe Kirkish Reprinted with Permission

Harry Potter offers fantasy, visual delights

HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE (Rated PG for some mild violence): I wonder what J.K.Rowling is thinking right now, as the novel she wrote (and was rejected by dozens of publishers before becoming world read) is now on screens around the country with people of all ages lining up to see the long awaited film version.

There's no denying it. This is one spectacular two and a half hours of non-stop eye candy entertainment -- driven, first of all, by the inspiration and imagination of its originator and then caught by a British/American team of filmmakers who had the vision to create the movie as accurately as possible from the novel.

In some way, that fidelity to the original has proved unsatisfactory to some of Rowling's fans, who have found the film 1) delightfully accurate and 2) disappointing for the parts that, due to time constraints, had to be left out.

I was more fortunate. Being one of the scant few who never read the novel, I soaked up the visual delights, followed the plot with baited breath and was sucked into the charm of its fantasy world.

Bypassing the complicated plot and the confusion of fantastic names for people and places, I can summarize this as the story of a youngster, born of a witch, who is unbearably raised as a human until he is rescued and sent to a country British school for sorcerers. There, he and a couple of his new-found friends plunge into the mystery of The Stone, uncover its secret and, finally, "live happily ever after," as is true in most such fantasy tales.

This charming fairy tale of sorts has been brought to the screen as a modern Dickensian tale, a fall and rise of a deserving kid during difficult times. Director Chris Columus and his crew have opted for a rapidly paced, visual delight -- the sort that only modern electronic magic can produce.

Thanks to digital magic, kids fly on broomsticks, myriads of fantastic critters take to the air or ramble about, and people move through walls with impunity. And thanks to the use of the rotocope (as old as film itself), ghostly ghosts from another time move freely across the scene, often mingling with the "live" characters.

Through all this, and with help from the Sesame Street creators as well as the Smoke & Mirrors company, the visuals simply don't stop.

Candles float overhead by the hundreds, insects (also digitally multiplied by the thousands) buzz the area, and a dozen kids play a sort of aerial soccer. People can become invisible thanks to a special cape; walls open or close in astonishing ways; a castle can become a remarkably huge edifice filled with seemingly hundreds of mysterious spaces led to by dozens of staircases -- some of them mobile.

One gets the feeling that nothing is impossible on screen any longer.

The wide screen format is well used, and a large screen seems absolutely necessary to capture all the details rounded up for us.

Oddly, but satisfyingly, the sound is more subdued. John Williams' musical score has none of his Superman bombast; instead, it is almost gently underplayed, allowing the visuals to take their center stage -- as well they should.

There isn't an outstandingly bad actor in the huge cast -- headed by relative unknowns among the youngsters and solid adult performers in lesser roles: Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith and even John Cleese among them.

Probably the most innovative characteristic here is the idea that these are almost ordinary British kids attending an almost typical British school at which they must matriculate properly, then follow stringent rules set by their strict British instructors while taking classes in such unorthodox subjects as Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Transfiguration.

OK, so the kids are sometimes more enthusiastic in their acting than talented, and so the action is almost too heady for those who have not read the book, and so the ending seems a bit saccharin -- in light of all the plusses and in comparison to most previous "kid shows," such minor defects can be forgiven. (Grade: A-)

Post Script:

I've just plowed through about 2000 movies in search of nine to be used next year for Club Indigo -- a food and film program at our historic Calumet Theatre. Not easy, considering the limitations of film length, rental fee and availability, classical balance and local audience approval. At this penultimate stage, out of the following, the nine will be rented. Any suggestions?

1. 12 ANGRY MEN (1957): An ingenious melodrama set almost entirely in a NYC jury room. Is this kid a murderer? At the start, it's 11 to one in favor of "yes." Then, one by one, as a probing discussion ensues and tempers grow hot, the verdict slips in the other direction.

2. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951): A joyous, original musical set in the City of Lights, where artist Gene Kelly vies for the affection of either Leslie Caron or Nina Foch. It culminates with that great full-length ballet set to Gershwin's Parisian tribute.

3. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964): Stanley Kubrick's gutsy satire on the possibilities of a final atomic war. Great cast, with Peter Sellers playing no less than three roles.

4. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934): A slight romantic screwball comedy starring Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert that is packed with laughs and charm.

5. NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955): Despite humorous overtones, this is one of the most frightening films ever made, with Robert Mitchum as a murderous, sex-obsessed, hymn-singing soul-saver who terrifies a family of seemingly helpless people, headed by Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. Charles Laughton's only (and excellent) directorial opus.

6. CITIZEN KANE (1941): Orson Welles' infamous masterpiece -- considered by most critics to be the greatest film ever made -- based on the scandalous life of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst.

7. SHOW PEOPLE (1928): A girl from the sticks takes on Hollywood in a most unexpected manner -- a delightful comedy of the times. By tradition, local pianist Melvin Kangas would accompany the film with his own original score.

8. CINEMA PARADISO (1988): A captivating, bittersweet comedy about an Italian boy who grows up wanting to follow in the footsteps of his film idols, all seen on the screen of a small town movie house during the 40s. Best Foreign Film of the year.

9. HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968): Ingmar Bergman's chilling fantasy about an artist living on an isolated Swedish island who might have sold his soul to the devil and must now pay the consequences.

10. LOCAL HERO (1983): Bill Forsyth's charming comedy in which Burt Lancaster plays an oil baron who decides to buy a little Scottish town -- and the hilarious results that occur when he sends someone to buy it for him. Nothing normal or predictable happens in this little gem.

11. EAT, DRINK, MAN, WOMAN (1994): Ang Lee's follow-up to his also Taiwanese THE WEDDING BANQUET -- another charming and humorous study of Eastern lives, traditions and loves in one family -- particularly among the head of the family and his three daughters.

12. THE RED SHOES (1948): an early British film in color about the sacrifices that must be made for a life in dance. Studded with famous British people of the ballet and concluded with the entire "Red Shoes" ballet, it stands as a masterpiece of its times.

13. STRICTLY BALLROOM (1992): an Australian movie about dance, this one satirizing the great tradition of ballroom dancing, but also including a remarkable sub-plot that features a young pair of dancers who refuse to follow tradition in their search for stardom.

14. TOPKAPI (1964): Still one of the all-time great heist films, this one featuring a diverse group of thieves who plan the greatest of all heists in glamorous Istanbul.

15. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959): Still a landmark in controversial comedy, dealing with a pair of male band members on the lam, who join an all-girl's band in disguise to escape. Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe and Joe E. Brown are sensational!

16. FIELD OF DREAMS (1989(: Kevin Costner is a farmer who hears a voice telling him to "build it and they will come." He does, and they do. Beautifully played from start to finish!

(Keep this list for future tape rentals; all the above are worth multiple viewings!)

Learn more about the author of this guest column, Joe Kirkish.

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