Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

(2005, Dir.: Mike Newell)

The current heavyweight champion of British children’s literature has a mixed record in film, but the latest entry is a clear round in its favor. Unlike the canonical Narnia, Harry Potter is about magic more than Magic, and its metaphors are social more than spiritual, but in its own way it has relevance for the kids and the grownups alike. (This is true of so many things, of course: I was at a local homeschoolers production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors the other night and there were a number of young children in attendance. Everyone laughed, but not always at the same time, or for the same reason.) Mike Newell (who abandoned The Constant Gardener for this movie) picks up where Alfonso Cuarón left off, giving a real sense of place and weight to Harry’s world of Hogwarts and wizardry.

Teenagery is catching up with Harry and his friends, as they begin to grapple with romance and the kind of surliness that is special to those years. The conspiracy of Death Eaters to revive Voldemort—with Harry’s unwitting assistance—only complicates matters. Worse even than math finals. Trying to cram the gangly and unwieldy several hundred pages of Goblet of Fire into a manageable film is the particular challenge for Newell.

In spite of trimming whole subplots, the film moves Harry’s story along briskly but without seeming to rush. Newell wisely leaves time for small, incidental moments that enrich the characters without sacrificing key points (though it remains to be seen if this can be kept up in the remaining films). The Harry-Ron-Hermione trio’s adjustment to adolescence is given its due, complete with awkward moments of self-consciousness, and neatly balanced with the action of the Triwizard Tournament and the efforts of Voldemort’s crew to ensnare Harry in their plot.

Like the books, the tone of the film is ever darker than its predecessors. The emotional climax is gripping, and hard; Harry’s own life began with death, but as it is for many of us, it is in this part of life where its reality truly begins to hit home.