harry potter and the deathly hallows 1 cast

It is also much less of a showcase (or bank vault, as the case may be) for the middle and senior generations of British actors. But it is, to an unusual and somewhat risky degree, sadder and slower than the earlier films. Not that “Deathly Hallows” is grim, exactly. The brilliant composer Alexandre Desplat has constructed a haunting, spooky sonic atmosphere with only an occasional splash of youthful whimsy. They also pop into nonmagical neighborhoods of London, visits that add a jolt of realism to this fantasy.

The production design is dense with visual allusions to 20th-century totalitarianism, while the battered and dispersed good guys carry some of the romance of guerrilla resistance, taking to the countryside and living rough as they search for weak spots in their enemy’s strategy. She has broken entirely with her Muggle parents, expunging herself from their memories to prevent them from being caught up in an increasingly vicious intrawizard civil war.įor most of this film Voldemort’s forces are very much in the ascendant.

Hermione (Emma Watson), for her part, seems lonelier than ever. The burden of chosenness weighs on Harry as well it is easier for him to accept being singled out for death by Lord Voldemort than to countenance the willingness of his allies and protectors to sacrifice their lives for him. The implicit rivalry for Hermione’s favor that has always simmered between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint) bubbles to the surface, as does Ron’s resentment at being the Chosen One’s sidekick. Their fate (think of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “The Golden Compass”) suggests that the perennial appeal of “Harry Potter” on screen was hardly a foregone conclusion.

But in the past decade more than a few promising franchises based on popular book series have failed to turn loyal readers into enthusiastic audiences or to bring in legions of new fans.

That none of the movies have demonstrated quite the same power makes it easy to underestimate their success. Rowling’s prose, a great many middle-aged readers were temporarily changed into 10-year-olds. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was published in America in 1998 - a lifetime ago for many young readers, just yesterday for their parents - and that tale and its six sequels now seem like permanent fixtures of the literary landscape. The midnight bookstore parties are all in the past, and, with the opening of the first half of the film adaptation of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” an extraordinary pop-culture cycle is on the verge of completion.

Harry potter and the deathly hallows 1 cast