Well into "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," Albus Dumbledore
intones as only he can: "Dark and difficult times
lie ahead." What does
he think lay behind?
In this adventure Harry will do battle with giant lizards, face the
attack of the Death Eaters, and in perhaps the most difficult task of
all for a 14-year-old, ask a girl to be his date at the Yule Ball.
That Harry survives these challenges goes without saying, since in
the
world of print his next adventures have already been published, but
"Goblet of Fire" provides trials that stretch his powers to the
breaking point.
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) was just turning 13 in the previous movie,
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004), and the Potter
series turns PG-13 with this installment. There is still at least a
mail-owl, and what looks like a mail-raven (it may represent FedEx),
but many of the twee touches of the earlier films have gone missing to
make room for a brawnier, scarier plot. Is it fair to wonder if the
series will continue to grow up with Harry, earning the R rating as he
turns 17?
Certainly Lord Voldemort seems capable of limitless villainy.
Although we glimpsed his face in "The Sorcerer's Stone," we see him in
full on screen for the first time in "Goblet of Fire," and he does not
disappoint: Hairless, with the complexion of a slug, his nostrils snaky
slits in his face, he's played by Ralph Fiennes as a vile creature who
has at last been rejoined by his Death Eaters, who were disabled by
Harry's magic earlier in the series. Hogwarts School and indeed the
entire structure of Harry's world is threatened by Voldemort's return
to something approaching his potential powers, and the film becomes a
struggle between the civilized traditions of the school and the dark
void of Voldemortism.
The film is more violent, less cute than the others, but the action
is not the mindless destruction of a video game; it has purpose, shape
and style, as in the Triwizard Tournament, which begins the film. Three
finalists are chosen by the Goblet of Fire, and then the Goblet spits
out an unprecedented fourth name: Harry Potter's. This is against the
rules, since you have to be 17 to compete in Triwizardry, and Harry is
only 14, but Dumbledore's hands are tied: What the Goblet wants, the
Goblet gets. The question is, who entered Harry's name, since Harry
says he didn't?
The Triwizard Tournament begins near the start of the film, but
after the Quidditch World Cup, which takes place within a stadium so
vast it makes the Senate Chamber in "Star Wars" look like a dinner
theater. The cup finals are interrupted by ominous portents; the Death
Eaters attack, serving notice that Voldemort is back and means
business. But the early skirmishes are repelled, and the students
return to Hogwarts, joined by exchange students from two overseas magic
academies: From France come the Beauxbaton girls, who march on parade
like Bemelmans' maids all in a row, and from Durmstrang school in
central Europe come clean-cut Aryan lads who look like extras from
"Triumph of the Will."
Besides Harry, Cedric Diggory is the Triwizard contestant from
Hogwarts, and the other finalists are Viktor Krum, a Quidditch master
from Durmstrang who looks ready to go pro, and the lithe Fleur
Delacour, a Beauxbaton siren. Together they face three challenges: They
must conquer fire-breathing dragons, rescue captives in a dark lagoon
and enter a maze, which, seen from the air, seems limitless. The maze
contains a threat for Harry that I am not sure is anticipated by the
Triwizard rules; within it waits Voldemort himself, who has been
lurking offstage and now emerges in malevolent fury.
Against these trials, which are enough to put you off your
homework, Harry also must negotiate his fourth year at Hogwarts. As
usual, there is a bizarre new teacher on the faculty. Alastor "Mad-Eye"
Moody (Brendan Gleeson) is the new professor of Defense AgDark Arts, and seems made of spare parts; he has an artificial limb,
and a glass eye that incorporates a zoom lens and can swivel
independently of his real eye.
There is also, finally, full-blown adolescence to contend with. I'd
always thought Harry would end up in love with Hermione Granger (Emma
Watson), even though their inseparable friend Ron Weasley (Rupert
Grint) clearly has the same ambition. But for the Yule Ball, Harry
works up the courage to ask Cho Chang (Katie Leung), who likes him a
lot. Ron asks Hermione, but she already has a date, with the student
most calculated to inspire Ron's jealousy. These scenes seem almost in
the spirit of John Hughes' high school movies.
Most of the Potter series regulars are back, if only for brief
scenes, and it is good to see the gamekeeper Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane)
find love at last, with Madame Maxime (Frances de la Tour),
headmistress of Beauxbaton. Hagrid, you will recall, is a hairy
half-giant. Frances is even taller, but she's a mercifully less hairy
giantess. One new character is the snoopy Rita Skeeter (Miranda
Richardson), gossip columnist of the Daily Prophet, a paper that has
pictures that talk, like the portraits in earlier films.
With this fourth film, the Harry Potter saga demonstrates more than
ever the resiliency of J.K. Rowling's original invention. Her novels
have created a world that can expand indefinitely and produce new
characters without limit. That there are schools like Hogwarts in other
countries comes as news and offers many possibilities; the only barrier
to the series lasting forever is Harry's inexorably advancing age. The
thought of him returning to Hogwarts for old boys' day is too
depressing to contemplate.