‘Goblet Of Fire’ Maintains Harry Potter’s Status

Hollywood loves Harry Potter. The boy wizard, now entering awkward adolescence and the teen years in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is helping save Tinseltown’s bacon in what has been a fairly dismal year. After a slow summer (despite such blockbusters as Star Wars: Episode III, War of the Worlds and Batman Begins), the fall has also left much to be desired, but the fourth installment of the film series based on author J.K. Rowling’s mega best-selling novels has not only outperformed all other Potter flicks, but has pulled the box office numbers out of their doldrums and nudged the series past the recent Lord of the Rings series as the third most profitable movie franchise in history (behind only the Star Wars series and James Bond series). Not too shabby for a hero who’s not even old enough to drive.

Goblet of Fire, 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 fourth term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But this time (and for the first time in the series), the adventures of the British boy wizard are directed by an Englishman, Mike Newell, and the proceedings are noticeably more dark and gloomy than in past entries… and only half of that has to do with the fact that Harry and his faithful friends, including the intrepid Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and the more laidback Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), are all facing puberty! This PG-13 picture (another first for the series) also very emphatically raises the stakes in terms of the ambitions of the series and the life-and-death stakes for Harry and his friends.

Harry is drawn into an exciting but deadly competition called the Tri-Wizard Tournament in which he contends with three older students (two from other schools outside Hogwarts) in challenges that range from doing battle with fierce dragons to weaving in and out of one of the most massive (and scariest) mazes since Jack Nicholson stalked his family through the twisted bushes of The Shining.

While Harry fights for his life (and reputation) in the competition, he must also confront changes in his relationships with his friends, who are all challenged as much by the task of asking a date to the school’s Yule Ball dance, as Harry is by facing pond monsters and the ever-nearing threat of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, menacing as the evil wizard responsible for killing Harry’s parents).

While Harry’s tournament tests are often dark and scary, his confrontations with his own insecurities and new discoveries about the opposite sex lend a very welcome sense of humor to the film. Newell does a great job with his leads and Radcliffe, Watson and Grint (as well as the rest of the young cast) do a great job of bringing that period of adolescence, sometimes uncomfortably but always entertainingly, to life.

Along with the return of superb character actors Maggie Smith (as Professor McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Professor Snape), Robbie Coltrane (gentle giant Hagrid), and Michael Gambon (Professor Dumbledore), Brendan Gleeson scores high marks as the school’s mysterious new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad-Eye Moody. But the film series is becoming more and more dependent on the trio of Radcliffe, Watson and Grint, which has grown sturdier as the series has progressed. The three young actors have earned such a level of trust from the audience and have proven to be so endearing that it allows us to root for their characters even as they begin to show their many, burgeoning facets, including some nagging flaws, warts and all. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images. If you have really young ones interested in seeing the film, it might be wise to check it out first because it’s very intense and might be a bit too much for small children.