The Best Harry Potter Yet!

The third time’s a charm? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban may give new meaning to that adage.

The newest film adaptation of author J.K. Rowling’s best-selling book series about a boy wizard is a surprisingly artful, immensely entertaining movie that casts its spell on audiences from the earliest frame to the final musical notes of John Williams’ superb score, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which has been number one at the box office the last two weeks, returns to the world of the bespectacled boy wizard, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), who is back for his third term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry’s faithful friends, the intrepid Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and the loyal but laidback Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), also return and they greet this new semester with the news that a convicted killer, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), an escapee from Azkaban Prison, is on the loose and may be coming after Harry.

Along with the return of superb character actors Maggie Smith (as Professor McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Professor Snape), and Robbie Coltrane (the gentle giant Hagrid), this entry features series newcomers Michael Gambon (taking over for the late Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore), Emma Thompson (as the bug-eyed Professor Trelawney), and David Thewlis (as the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin). The film series’ stellar supporting cast is key in helping keep these pictures balanced and accessible, even amid all their effects shots, and the newest additions aid that goal most charitably.

Clearly the most important newcomer to the series, however, is director Alfonso Cuaron, who takes over the reins from Chris Columbus. Best known for his recent film, Y Tu Mama Tambien, a spicy Mexican independent film, Cuaron was also the director of the lyrical 1995 adaptation of A Little Princess, and he brings that magic touch (no pun intended) to this film. Cuaron has a very keen, imaginative eye and his depiction of Rowling’s magical world is a clever mix of the fantastical and the down-to-earth: though the film features Hippogriffs (half horse, half eagle), Dementors (soul-sucking prison guards), magic maps and the return of the Whomping Willow, Cuaron keeps things grounded by shooting much of the film on location (utilizing, for the first time in the series, the Highlands of Scotland), and by having his cinematographer film the movie in more hushed tones and giving everything less of a burnished look (as in previous films) but more of a “lived-in” feel.

So, whereas the previous two entries depended too much upon the razzle dazzle of their visual effects and tended to be a bit lumbering because they strove to too literally adapt these beloved books, Cuaron lets the effects serve the story and instead focuses more on tone and performance, drawing out the allegorical nature of the story as Harry faces adolescence and all the raging emotions and insecurities that come with it.

Given that focus, the trio of Radcliffe, Watson and Grint, which has grown sturdier as the series has progressed, rises to the occasion, and Cuaron coaxes out their best, most assured performances yet. In fact, the three have now earned such a level of trust from the audience and by the end of film have proven to be so endearing that their continued presence in the films now seems absolutely essential, even though Warner Bros. is allegedly mulling the idea of recasting the leads after the next film, fearing their current trio may be outgrowing the roles. Well, phooey to that, I say! 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is rated PG for some frightening scenes, creature violence and mild language. Film aficionados have made the case that some series’ second entry is actually better than the first (i.e., The Godfather, Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek II, Toy Story 2 and, most recently, Shrek 2) but this Potter film may strike up a whole new debate: how many film series can say that their best entry is the third go-around?