Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

I suppose as a reviewer you get to the point with a long-running series where you run out of useful things to really say about it, or maybe it’s just because I’ve been writing these things every other day for the past few weeks. This sixth instalment of J.K. Rowling’s teenage wizarding series is every bit as well-crafted as the previous film, and follows in much the same vein. If anything it encompasses some even darker textures, though these are counterbalanced by some of the deftest touches of humour so far in the series, and while it draws back somewhat from the previous film’s political worldview, there’s enough here that’s enchanting.

The darkness is introduced right from the outset with an attack on London, destroying the Millennium Bridge, as well as one of the shops on the hidden little Dickensian street of the alternative wizarding world. The film closes, too, with the death of a key character, and in between is all manner of demonic details occasioned by the return of Voldemort, although some are related to the book belonging to the ‘Half-Blood Prince’ which Harry discovers. The final chapters to the saga are also set up by the revelation that Voldemort has concealed his soul in seven magical items (or “horcruxes” as they are known here), which must be destroyed in order to finally defeat him.

The darkness is of a piece with the gloomily gothic world conjured up by Rowling’s fiction and which has been elaborated in all the successive films. More interesting is the appearance of rather more levity than we’ve had so far, with all manner of situational comedy and throwaway lines from the teenage leads as the sub-plots relating to their various romantic connections are played out. Ron becomes an unlikely centre of attentions to several female characters, while Harry starts to develop feelings for Ron’s sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright).

Elsewhere the acting continues to be strong, with new recruit for this episode being the bumbling professor played by Jim Broadbent, a pleasant enough caricature but without some of the depth of previous faculty staff members (he brings to mind Kenneth Branagh’s turn more than anything else). If I liked the Half-Blood Prince in the end, perhaps a lot has to do with the way it builds on the previous episodes and sets up the denouement, and with my own greater investment in this world after five previous instalments. In any case, it’s put together nicely, and carries the viewer through with the deftest of touches.

Next: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

CREDITS
Director David Yates; Writer Steve Kloves (based on the novel by J.K. Rowling); Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel; Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Jim Broadbent, Tom Felton; Length 153 minutes. Seen at home (Blu-ray), London, Wednesday 1 January 2014.