Posted: 11/17/2002

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

(2002)

by Coco Delgado

Sequel to currently second-highest grossing pic of all time is actually more enjoyable.

When you go to a movie based on a book you’ve read, you aren’t going because you want to be surprised. You know who the characters are, you know what happens, you know how it ends. People who tell you, “don’t tell me anything! I haven’t seen it!”—haven’t read it, either.

You go to see movies based on books because you liked or loved the book and you want to make sure the movie didn’t screw it up. You’re going to see if the filmmaker was able to live up to your expectations.

You’re going so you can be disappointed. You’re challenging the filmmaker to screw it up, basically. Seeing movies based on books is different from seeing other movies. You either can’t win, or you can’t lose.

Thankfully, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets doesn’t screw up. It doesn’t, by any means, include everything the book did, but, at 2 hours and 40 minutes, it gives it the old Hogwart’s try. I’m not going to go into great plot detail…you’ve probably read the book, anyway…but basically, Harry goes back for his second year at Hogwart’s, solves a deadly mystery with the help of his friends Ron and Hermione, they break all the school rules and don’t get in trouble. It captures the book quite well, and like the book, it’s better than the first one because it doesn’t have to explain everything.

The fun thing about this Harry Potter movie is that it doesn’t take itself seriously like some blockbuster franchises. There’s a very strong undercurrent of irreverence and fun throughout; throwaway lines, silly tricks with special effects. The car’s headlights turning on at dusk. The owl’s eyes widening ever-so-slightly. The snake’s insolent and rebellious hiss. Little touches that show a charming attention to detail. And the big effects come off well, too: there’s a flashback scene in black and white that’s wonderful in its subtlety. The flying Ford Anglica, is also lovely, embodying the best of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Herbie the Love Bug…It just looks like people were having fun.

It’s also nice to see the British slang left in…

And the actors! Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman are back, along with Kenneth Branagh, who plays Gilderoy Lockhart like Danny Kaye channeling Oscar Wilde. He’s hilarious as an ineffective fop (keep an eye out for his portrait in one scene). And apart from the cast A-list, there’s lots of character actors you’ll recognise from other British movies and television sitcoms: Gemma Jones and Shirley Henderson from Bridget Jones’s Diary, Robert Hardy from All Creatures Great and Small, and Mark Williams from The Fast Show.

And then there’s Dobby, this year’s Jar Jar Binks. At least in this, he’s supposed to be annoying…and it’s good to see him getting work. Look for him next month in another Book-On-Film, The Two Towers.

Like I said, the movie held no great surprises. I went in knowing what would happen, and I wasn’t disappointed…But I also wasn’t disappointed with the way things happened.

Coco Delgado is a writer who always sits in the front row. For fun she moves to different cities, which have included Montreal, San Francisco and Atlanta. Currently it’s Boston.

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