Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

I’ll just come out and say it: the books are always better. I don’t go to the Potter movies looking for the richness and complexity of the books. To me, the films have been best approached as moving illustrations for the books (rather, actually, like the moving newspapers in the Potter universe), a perspective which allowed me to tolerate the first two outings, which were slavishly faithful to J. K. Rowling’s originals, almost to a fault. As entities of their own, the movies tend to work best when they can depart somewhat from the print source and balance fidelity with inventiveness (this is why the third film, Alfonso Cuaron’s idiosyncratic Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is probably still the best stand-alone movie of the bunch).

Interesting, then, to arrive at the film of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which, as the next-to-last book in the Potter series, is itself an unusual balance of fidelity to and departure from the usual Potter-book formulas. This is not at heart an adventure story, as most of the others are. The mysteries to be solved and the obstacles to be overcome are almost all in some way psychological. The adventures are mostly romantic. The stakes of the story, while involving magic, spill over into the real world. Say what you will about the increasing darkness of the series up to now—this installment is where the Potter franchise grows up. And it’s about time. This is the best Potter flick in a long time.

The story wastes no time with recaps. We leap in with the direct aftermath of Harry’s encounter with evil Lord Voldemort in the last film, and then are shown the effects of Voldemort’s wrath on the wider world as his “Death Eater” minions ransack wizard landmark Diagon Alley and muggle (non-wizard) landmark London’s Millennium Bridge. The latter is particularly effective at establishing both the raised stakes of the plot and the dangerousness of magic, which is no longer a child’s game at this point (as a U.S. citizen, I was also happy to see someone else’s landmarks get trashed in a blockbuster for a change). To show the stars aren’t kids anymore either, we meet Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, as always) this time on his own, in an ordinary train station café, flirting with a cute waitress. Alas for Harry’s social life, he is soon whisked off by mentor/Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) on a special mission. That mission? To recruit Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) a reclusive, tweedy friend of Dumbledore’s to come out of retirement and teach at Hogwarts school. Slughorn, as captivated in his way by Harry as the café waitress was, agrees. But it turns out that Dumbledore doesn’t just want his old pal around for nostalgia’s sake: Slughorn has something to hide, and Harry’s task is to learn what it is. Harry is not the only one with a secret mission, either. Perennial Potter nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) is also up to something in a hidden room of Hogwarts—and he appears to have the backing of slippery professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), who has made a sinister vow to protect him. And all the while, the Death Eaters are spreading their reign of terror, trying harder to get inside the sanctuary of Hogwarts and strike at Voldemort’s enemies.

Inside Hogwarts, however, there’s also a lot of school business as usual, and Harry and his longtime pals brainy Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and wry Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) simply have a lot of late-teenage baggage to sort through. This particularly means romance. No magic potion is as potent as human hormones, and our heroes find themselves in triangles and other love polygons, more or less willingly. The puppy-love stage is over, and we can begin to see pairs forming that will carry through the end of the series…though the course of true love never runs smooth, even for wizards. There are classes still to take, too, and an additional mystery centers around an unnervingly helpful used textbook Harry acquires—a book heavily annotated by its brilliant past owner, “The Half-Blood Prince.” In its pages, Harry learns shortcuts to brilliance in Potions (his weakest subject) and spells that can mortally wound an enemy. This is not a book you sell back. But is it too dangerous to keep?

It’s a credit to screenwriter Steve Kloves (who adapted all but the fifth books) that the film crams in this much information despite the cuts needed to get an almost 700-page book under onscreen control. That said, however, fans of the books will notice much that is missing, those who only know the films would probably benefit from a DVD refresher beforehand, and newcomers to the series will probably be lost. This is a series film, not a starter one, and is in many ways a set-up for the next installment (or installments, since the last book is becoming two films).

All the child actors have grown up, and, while they’re still playing a bit below their real ages, finally get to play young adults. This means that we’re treated to real emotional arcs this time around, and the three leads are beginning to make the most of having literally grown up together. We sense that these are actual friends who care about each other, which pays dividends by the end of this film and looks good for the next two. They’re also just better actors by now, and director David Yates trusts them to be off the leash a bit more. Grint gets some priceless comedy in as Ron is victimized alternately by an overeager girlfriend and a misdirected love spell. Radcliffe has relaxed a bit, internalizing Harry’s anger and instead leading with his sense of purpose. A sequence where Harry is emboldened by a luck potion gives us a glimpse of what Radcliffe might do when allowed to play above school age. Of the three, Emma Watson is the least sure-footed. She still nails Hermione’s intelligence and wit, but somehow doesn’t rise to all the newer, more complex notes the character gets here. All the usual classmates are in good form as well, with Felton getting to show some layers to bad-boy Draco, and Evanna Lynch stealing a few more moments as lovably daffy Luna Lovegood. There’s also some nice, low-key chemistry on display as Harry begins to realize his interest in Ron’s younger sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright). Their naturalistic flirting is a welcome counterpoint to Ron’s zany romantic misadventures.

And here, at last, is the payoff for the supporting cast. The roster of high-profile British actors wrangled into the Potter films has seemed like a stunt in the past (look! Emma Thompson in a wig! Michael Gambon in a beard!), but now that the movies move into more adult territory the wisdom of the choices becomes clear. Before, these players were telling fairy tales. Now they get to act. Gambon does especially good work as Dumbledore here, balancing wit and seriousness, power and vulnerability better than ever. Alan Rickman, who does simmering repression better than anyone, once again proves invaluable to the series as the hard-to-figure Snape. Broadbent is a welcome addition this time, endowing Slughorn with just the right mix of old-school professorial eccentricity and deep, honest guilt. Voldemort is absent for this round, except in two creepy childhood flashbacks, but Helena Bonham Carter returns to have a nice snack on the scenery as gleefully destructive Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange (“Bellatrix Lestrange?” only Dickens has better character names than Rowling). David Thewlis, Timothy Spall, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, and many of the other usual suspects are also back, albeit in limited amounts, hitting their cues from the books and marking time, I suspect, for the final two outings.

This is the second Potter effort for director Yates, who also gets the gift/burden of the two-part finale. The consistency is welcome. Yates has found a good tone for these later books, both in mood and actual hue (Hogwarts is still colorful, but many of the other scenes are almost monochromatic). The sillier elements are funny without being fatuous, the dramatic scenes are quietly effective, and some of the menacing elements are downright disturbing (despite this movie’s reversion to a plain PG rating). On Yates’s resume is British original miniseries of State of Play (lately a Russell Crowe movie here stateside), a political conspiracy thriller, and I don’t wonder if such background suits him to the Potter films that move beyond the school walls and into real-world dangers and, yes, conspiracies.

Is this as good as the book? No. Is it a “middle movie” setting up the end? You bet. But I’m not going to complain, this of all summers, when a “big” movie takes the time to explore characters and relationships rather than just blow stuff up (though, in fairness, Half-Blood Prince has its share of pyrotechnics by the time it’s done). There’s talent, not just money, on display here. It’s great to see Harry all grown up, and, in many ways, all the more magical for it.