Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Review (2)

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Thanks for the memories, Harry

One of the things about the Harry Potter franchise has always been that even if you can’t get into the fantasy genre, you can appreciate a coming of age story about finding inner strength and doing what’s right no matter what the situation. That’s been the crux behind the story of Harry Potter, a young boy who becomes a man in front of our eyes, as the tale of Harry against Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is really just a tale of good and evil wrapped in the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell described years ago. And the journey that started with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has come full circle and finished with Harry Potter and the Death Hallows Part 2.

When we last left Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his pals Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) were en route trying to find the remaining Horcrux to weaken Harry’s mortal enemy Voldemort. The Horcrux allow Voldemort to remain immortal and it’s the only chance Harry has at winning the final showdown that is fated between the two. Voldemort has raised an army, however, and the whole of the world remains in the balance as the clash between good and evil looms.

Once you take out the various histrionics of the story what you have left is the final act in a slow moving hero’s journey. This is the final steps that Harry is taking, as he is now the hero (and man) he is supposed to be and this is his final steps towards Voldemort and his destiny. J.K Rowling may not have known where the story was going specifically when she first penned the series but she knew where he was going in a general direction. George Lucas may have crafted the tale of Luke Skywalker around Campbell’s hero’s journey and Rowling did the exact same thing as Lucas did, just in the fantasy genre as opposed to science fiction. But it’s in how he gets to the final steps that makes it worthwhile and that comes from a fully nuanced performance from Daniel Radcliffe.

Radcliffe, who has lived and breathed the character since he was a child, has saved the final film in the series for his best performance as Harry is no longer a young wizard. He’s a hero of legend and it would be easy for him to rest on those laurels. This is a tightly scripted and plotted film, so a mediocre performance could get washed away with just how well written and how tightly designed the story is, but Radcliffe brings a powerful, nuanced performance to the role. It doesn’t need it but it’s refreshing in a blockbuster to have its lead do something more than mail it in ala Shia LaBeouf in Transformers.

He has an easier time because this is a brilliantly scripted film that benefits from a director who has worked with the material before. This is a film that knows it’s the final chapter and has no qualms with it. Many franchises don’t want to end, even in their final chapters, and Deathly Hallows Part 2 knows it’s a final chapter and wants to tie up every end. It also has some brilliant moments, too, including the film’s big emotional scene between Michael Gambon and Radcliffe. It’s raw and powerful, with two actors being given terrific material and a director strong enough to bring out their best.

Many franchises don’t know how to close that final chapter, to put the pen down and walk away. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 does this magnificently. If there’s no more Harry Potter to be had after this one, it’s not a bad thing. It walks away with perhaps the best film in the franchise itself as its denouement.


Director: David Yates
Notable Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, David Thewlis
Writer(s): Steve Kloves, based on the novel “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling