Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Paul Greenwood reviews

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

• Cert:
• Running time: 161 minutes
• Year: 2002
• Released: 15th November 2002
• Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
• Rating: 9/10

Director:

Chris Columbus

(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire)

Cast:

Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Professor Dumbledore: Richard Harris
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Gilderoy Lockhart: Kenneth Branagh
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Moaning Myrtle: Shirley Henderson
Lucius Malfoy: Jason Isaacs

OK, I’ll admit it – I used to be a Potter sceptic.It wasn’t until the release of the fourth book and its attendant fuss that Iwent back and started reading them. When I did start, I couldn’t stop and readall four within a few days, such was the fun and excitement they contained.

Which is why I was so disappointed in the first film. It stayed faithful tothe book, yes, but perversely that was its biggest flaw. You only have to lookat the brilliance ofThe Lord of the Ringsto see what can be achieved by some judicious trimming and tinkering in orderto make something cinematic. What the Philosopher’s Stone lacked, mostfrustratingly, was magic. It was a plodding, occasionally lifeless affair froma director who is the very definition of harmless family fun. All fears pointedto the Chamber of Secrets being more of the same.

Mercifully, It’s been improved upon in almost every imaginable way. What wasmerely a collection of episodes is now a cohesive narrative. What was endlessintroduction and exposition is now a non-stop action extravaganza. What weresome of the dodgiest big budget special effects seen in a long time now giveLucas and Jackson something to think about. And, most importantly, what wasthe movie magic equivalent of an evening with Paul Daniels is now filled tothe brim with imagination and style.

It’s now second year for boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends at HogwartsSchool of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But before Harry can get there, he has toescape the clutches of his loathsome adoptive family, the Dursleys, as well asthe attentions of Dobby, a mysterious elf, who warns him not to return toHogwarts. But return he does (in a flying car, obviously) to find that studentsare being petrified alive by an unknown force and strange messages are beingdaubed in blood on the school walls. A terrible creature has been stirred inthe Chamber of Secrets and the finger of suspicion is soon being pointed atHarry himself. It’s up to him and his companions to solve the puzzle and stopthe evil force before it’s too late.

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The Chamber of Secrets is a truly cracking mystery adventure, with just abouteverything you could want from a blockbuster movie – thrills, scares (some quiteintense, so be careful with the tots) laughs and excitement. As mentioned above,the effects are either superb (the flying car is completely convincing) or jawdropping – where the Quidditch match first time round looked faintly ridiculous,it’s now a piece of lightning fast brutality to rival just about any actionsequence of recent times.

On the down side, there seems to be very little room left for most of the supportingcast that gave the first film what few delights it had. Coltrane as Hagrid iscriminally underused. Ditto Rickman and Smith. Harris gets slightly more to doand proves he will be sadly missed and hard to replace. Of the new faces thisouting, Isaacs makes a strong impression and his future confrontations withHarry will be something to look forward to. Branagh is absolutely hilariousbut even he seems to disappear for hours at a time, such is the more or lessconstant screen time given to Harry (it is his film after all). This would bea problem if Radcliffe were as unsure as he was first time round, where he didlittle except gawp like a slack jawed yokel. Thankfully, he’s grown into therole wonderfully and now actually convinces us that Harry is special. Grint,as his comic relief sidekick Ron, is given less funny lines, but still makesthe most of them, along with a brilliant array of funny faces and yelps thatwould do Lou Costello proud, while Watson‘s Hermione is as simultaneouslyirritating and sweet as before.

A year ago, the battle between Harry and the Hobbits saw young Potter take aright good thrashing, if not at the box office, then certainly in terms ofquality. If the Two Towers trailer is anything to go by, the result might bequite clear cut again, but at least the speccy wizard should be able to put upa decent fight this time.

Review copyright © Paul Greenwood, 2002.E-mail Paul Greenwood

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