
Writers: Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)
Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Jason Isaacs
Studio: Warner Bros.
In halving the final book of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, director David Yates and veteran Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves have been given the chance to double the impact of the boy wizard’s final battles. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 mostly delivers on that conceit, but it intermittently grasps at wands, not quite sure where to aim its many spells.
The film will surely play best when preceded by a viewing of PART 1, as this last film takes a while to get its footing, beginning where the first left off without pause. We return to Bill and Fleur’s seaside cottage, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his closest cohorts (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) attempt to make sense of what has just happened to them at Malfoy Manor. In piecing things together, Harry seeks counsel with other survivors, including goblin Griphook. In a throwaway moment of pleasantry, Harry simply asks Griphook how he is, to which the goblin responds with one word – “alive.” And that small exchange pretty well sums up where we are in the opening of PART 2, having faced so much loss and upheaval, just being alive is a statement. (more...)