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November 26

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire review - SPOILERS

I saw the fourth installment of the Harry Potter movies last weekend. I had been looking forward to this one, because "Goblet of Fire" is the point in the series where things turn serious really quick. From here on out, someone close to Harry dies every year - in ever tightening circles, as each new death strikes someone even closer to Harry than the last. This is the beginning of that, the "end of the innocence" of the series, so to speak.

I re-read the book (The British version, thank you very much) about a month ago to psyche me up and refresh my memory of exactly what was going to be happening. I did the same thing with Prisoner of Azkaban before that movie came out, and I was very dissappointed in how much liberty the movie took with the book. I was shocked to discover that they had taken far more liberty with the liberty-taking in the fourth movie.

I'll summarize my thoughts in one sentence before I get into the specifics:

"It's like the screenwriter never read the book at all, but just based his screenplay off of the Cliff's Notes."

Ouch, you say. Well, here are the specifics:

The first 150 pages of the book are condensed into about 10 minutes of screen time. No kidding. The first scene is of course the vision of Voldemort in Little Hangleton. When Frank Bryce peers through the door, he sees the back of the chair, Wormtail, and - what the heck? - another man, who is obviously Barty Crouch Junior! Unbelieveable! They give it away at the very beginning! At this point, I realized just how mangled this movie was going to be. Gone are the scenes of the Weasleys visiting the Dursleys to retrieve Harry. Okay, I can live without that. When Harry wakes up from his vision of Voldemort, he is in bed at the Burrow. The next scene, they are walking up the hill to the portkey, and then they are at the World Cup. No longer do they have seats in the top box, but they are now in the bad seats. There is no Ludo Bagman. At all. Instead, all of his roles are taken on by Cornelius Fudge. Worse yet, there is no Barty Crouch Senior. No Winky. Uh...? So we see about 30 seconds of the World Cup - most of which is devoted to introducing Victor Krum - and then everyone is back in their tents celebrating the Irish victory. Now the Death Eaters come, and everyone flees - except Harry, who falls in the mud unconcious after being trampled. No no no. And then - Barty Crouch Jr.! - appears in front of Harry in the middle of the burned out destroyed campground and summons the Dark Mark in full view of the now wide-awake Harry. Then everyone comes rushing back and finds Harry. This is SO VERY DIFFERENT from the book, and worse in every way. Next scene in on the Hogwart's Express. That's page 141 in the UK version of the book, the beginning of Chapter 11. As the movie goes, we are about 15 minutes into the 2 hour 45 minute movie. Oh my.

So what DO they devote the remainder of the screentime to? Well, a large chunk of it revolves around the Yule Ball. Yep. And very little of that is actually spent dwelling on Harry's crush on Cho, either. I could rant and rave about the problems with this movie in depth, but there is too much. I'll just hit the high spots (I mean, "low spots"...)

Moody comes off the wrong way. He's malicious and cruel, unlike in the book where he is met with fear mixed with admiration. Instead of inspiring awe and respect, he just freaks people out. There is NO mention of Moody's run in with the ministry at the beginning over his alarms going off, and therefore no explanation for the imposter.
The following characters do not appear at all, and in fact are not even MENTIONED: Winky, Dobby, Mrs. Weasley, Percy Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Ludo Bagman, Bertha Jorkins, Bellatrix Lestrange... and even Sirius Black's role is reduced to a very brief (and very bad) special effect shot with him talking in the fire through the Floo network.
Beauxbatons is now an all-girls school, and Durmstrang an all boys school. This was not true of the book.
There is no mention of the Hagrid/Maxime half-giant scandal.
No Blast-ended Skrewts. Haha! No big loss here.
There is no mention of SPEW and the House Elf Liberation Front. I can do without that, but in cutting it out, they also cut the very important roles of the two house elves.
There is no mention of how Rita Skeeter gets her information - i.e., that she is an Animagus.
In the first task, the dragon doesn't guard the egg; rather it just tries to kill Harry by breaking free and flying all over the grounds. Granted, it's exciting to watch, but it's a deviation from the book.
Ron takes credit for tipping Harry off about the dragons(?)
Harry's encounter with Myrtle in the Prefect's bathroom is very funny in the movie. I'll give them credit for that.
In the second task, Fleur is disqualified (?) and remains remarkably calm as her little sister remains unrescued at the bottom of the lake. Also, since Dobby doesn't exist in this movie, Harry receives the Gillyweed from Neville instead.
No longer is there any mention of Barty Crouch Sr. going missing and Percy filling in for him.
When Harry views the trial of Karkaroff - oh man, this is SO bad - he names Barty Jr. as a Death Eater. Junior, who is present in the audience then pulls an astonishingly bad Phantom of the Opera impersonation and darts across the room frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog. This is just a pure lunatic, rather than the whimpering boy who cried and begged his father not to send him to Azkaban. A pathetic reinterpretation. Shame on you, Mr. Screenwriter.
THERE IS NO MENTION OF THE MARAUDER'S MAP! The entire scene where Harry sees Barty Crouch in Snape's office on the Marauder's Map is GONE. Unbelievable!
There is no big to-do about Harry's suspicions of Snape. Harry discovers that he's a former Death Eater for crying out loud, but doesn't seem to really suspect him of anything. Ha!
The relationship between Harry and Cedric never really seems to be strong. They don't hit it off as friends like they do in the book. In fact, in the third task, they are actually pushing and shoving one another. Sheesh.
The third task is a butchery as well. No longer are there any creatures in the maze. (Did the special effects budget run out?) Instead, they are told that "the maze changes people." Oh, COME ON. This is the excuse for why Krum attacked Fleur - not that Moody had him under the Imperius curse, but that "the maze changed him." Bite me, Mr. Screenwriter. As mentioned, Harry and Cedric almost duke it out over the Cup rather than the whole "no, you deserve it," "no no, I insist" scene from the book.
The graveyard scene was pretty good, with only minor problems. One, Wormtail wasn't as snivelling as he should have been. Barely winced when he cut off his own hand. Ralph Fiennes makes a great Voldemort. But there were only like a half-dozen Death Eaters present. Voldemort's exposition is very brief. The return to the portkey is so quick and sudden that it removes all the drama far too quickly.
The scene when he returns with Cedric's body is fairly well done - for the most part. What comes next is appalling.
Moody reveals himself to Harry as Barty Jr. and Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall burst in a stun him. Okay, fine. They give him the veritaserum. Fine. No backstory about how he'd escaped from Azkaban. No backstory about having his dad under the Imperius curse. And then - oh, man this is SO BAD - Dumbledore says, "we'd better notify Azkaban prison that one of their prisoners is missing." WHAT. THE. HECK. No Cornelius Fudge, no dementor, no kiss of death. Nothing. Did they think that kids would be too traumatized having just seen Cedric Avada Kedavera'd to watch Barty Jr. have his soul sucked out by a dementor?

Truly dissappointing. The best way I can sum it up is this: Everything endearing and humanizing in this book has been stripped out of the movie in an effort to keep it fast-paced and dark. J.K. Rowling must no longer have script approval for the movies, because I just can't imagine that she would be sitting there smiling and nodding with approval at this travesty of a movie. Sure, she's making the bucks. Can't blame her for that. BUT - I will be very hesitant to go spend $8 to see Order of the Phoenix when it comes out, considering how they mangled Goblet of Fire.

I give it a D. Two stars out of five. However you want to do it.

October 17

Gounod's "Faust"

I went to see Faust at the PAC Friday night. The house was pretty full, and the audience was interesting to say the least. There was a very strange mix of true opera afficionados, extremely wealthy people who were there because it is just the thing to do, young men with no clue who were hoping to impress their dates with a nice night out, and the poseurs, who were trying to convince others that they are, in fact, high-brow and sophisticated. I suppose there were also "the curious," who just wanted to see what it was all about. As a lover of music and stage, I suppose I fall somewhere between the true opera lovers and the curious. The last such production I had seen was Carmina Burana, which blended an operatic chorus with ballet. So I was excited to give "pure" opera a chance. The people-watching was rather fun as well. It was much like the kind of people-watching I do on the rare occasions when I attend a baseball game, except that the people at the opera were much better dressed and less likely to yell. There was just as much drinking at the opera, of course, but substitute champagne and sherry for the beer, and nobody was throwing peanut shells off of the mezzanine into the orchestra.

All in all, it was very enjoyable. The principals were of course extremely talented. As I was unfamiliar with this particular work, I was surprised to learn that an opera about a German doctor would be in French, but there it was. I suppose in retrospect it makes sense, since this telling of the old Faust story was composed by a man named "Gounod." This was better for me, because I could actually pick out some of what was being said without aid of the subtitles, whereas I would be largely lost in German.

The first act begins with Dr. Faust's first of many soliloquies. An elderly man who is weary of life, the doctor is contemplating suicide. The young people sing and dance outside his window, but his desire is gone, and life is futile as he sees it. He curses God and summons the devil. So of course, the devil, as represented by Mephistopheles, appears to him and agrees to change his life. He tells him, "I'll be your slave in this world, and you'll be mine in the next." (Yet another literary gaffe mistaking Satan for the ruler of hell rather than its most tormented captive, but that is a subject for a different post.) Faust foolishly agrees to his conditions and signs his soul over to the devil in exchange for renewed youth and the attentions of the young ladies. Of course, you can never trust the devil.

Mephistopheles was amusingly played by the only black man in the production. And he was excellent. He was an amazing basso, and very animated and deliberate. The amusing thing to me was his remarkable resemblance to Christopher Judge, of Stargate fame. Just imagine Teal'c, a foot shorter, dressed like the devil but in a tuxedo, and singing in French. You'll laugh, too.

So anyway, Faust falls for the virgin Margeurite, and enlists the devil to help him seduce her. Her brother is Valentin, captain of the local army detachment, which is heading off to war. War is presented in its most generic sense here. We only know that these men are from whatever town we are in in whatever country and that they are departing to fight "the enemy." I don't know if this originally held historical context or if it was intentionally vague in the original production. But anyway, he's leaving, and he has a big number in which he beseeches God to protect his sister's virtue in his absence. (My thought here was "Don't blame God if your sister makes a bad decision.") There is also a little boy named Siebel who has a crush on Margeurite. Siebel is played, as is common in opera for young male characters, by a woman. Siebel as the boy hopelessly in love with the older woman is essentially the comic relief, although disturbingly, Mephistopheles was much funnier. Be that the result of the script or the director, I do not know.

Anyway, that was the setup of Act 1. In act two, Faust and the devil successfully push Siebel aside and seduce Marguerite after much effort breaking through her virtuous defences. Of course, they are not initally successful, and they try many things to focus her attention so deeply onto Dr. Faust that she forgets her virtue. Act 2 ends with Faust and Marguerite entering her bedchamber where the implication as to their activities within is obvious. A side note of Act 2 is that Marguerite's friend (didn't catch her name) learns that her husband has been killed in combat. Of course, the source of this information is Mephistopheles himself, so odds are pretty good that it was a total lie in order to distract her from minding Marguerite's chastity. So once she believes that she is a widow, she immediately turns her attentions on - guess who? - Mephistopheles. Yep. So there you have it, the friend of the heroine, chasing the devil all around the set hoping to get him to marry her. Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is desperate.

So as Act 3 opens, Marguerite, who has defiled herself with Faust, is contrite and repentant at the church where she seeks God's forgiveness for yielding to sin. She stays there praying long after the others leave, and who appears to her but the devil masquerading as an angel and convincing her that God will not forgive her and that she is damned for all eternity. It was an amazing scene and equally disturbing. Now we cut to (guess who?) Valentin and the rest of the soldiers returning from battle. Big song about the glories of war etc. and then he finds out about his sister's disgrace. He vows revenge on her corruptor, and sets off to slay Faust. Faust, however, has the assistance of the devil, and through much cheating is able to defeat Valentin and leave him mortally wounded. He regrets this it seems, but nonetheless, the deed is done. Marguerite rushes to her brother's side to comfort him and ask his forgiveness, but he is having none of this. He blames her for his own impending death and refuses to absolve her of her unchasteness that has led to his demise. He actually goes so far as to damn her and disown her. And thus he dies. So Valentin is our tragic hero.

Now here is where I got lost. Next thing we see is that Marguerite is in prison awaiting her execution. At least I think she's awaiting execution. She is a shadow of her former self; no longer the pretty young maiden, but now in dirty rags with her hair shorn. I'm not really sure why her indiscretion is more worthy of death than Faust's dueling murder. Anyway, Faust and Mephistopheles are there in the prison too, but seemingly not themselves incarcerated. They are trying to convince her to escape with them, as by this time Faust is thoroughly in love with her. Has Faust already died for his crime, and trying to convince her to join him and the devil? Or is he just trying to rescue her from prison to escape with him? I couldn't tell, but all the while he and the devil are singing at her to come with them, she seems not to hear them at all. She is extremely penitent and is praying the whole time. Suddenly the chorus shouts "Jugement!" (There's no "d" because they shouted it in French...

) and then *POOF!* she's dead. At least that is the inference. Nobody came in to execute her, she didn't fall over or anything. Maybe it was supposed to be the rapture. Anyway, she stands up from her prayer and turns around to see the chorus dressed as brightly shining angels. A stairway opens up and a bright light shines through the clouds. Obviously, God has heard her prayers and forgiven her, and she is being taken to Heaven. A man decends the stairs to meet her, and due to the dense clouds, I am unable to say for certain whether he was meant to represent Jesus or Valentin. He looked like Valentin, but it was extremely difficult to see him well, and very strange in light of his cursing departure.

So! We have resolution to one thread of the story - time to tie up the other thread, right? Now we're going to see Faust's judgement, right? He's finally going to pay for his collusion with the devil, right? No, sorry. The curtain drops in front of Heaven and behind behind Faust and the devil, obviously indicating that they are excluded from Heaven. And then... the house lights come up and the ovation begins. WHAT?! I need closure! Where is the punishment of Faust and the devil? Where are the "just desserts" that are such a hallmark of opera and Shakespearean tragedy? Nothing.

Now like I said, I may very well have missed something that would have made this sensible. However, from my perspective, the plot just fell apart at the end, aside from Marguerite's redemption that is. The perfomance was magnificent, the chorus was top-notch, and the music was good as well. But I left feeling like somebody forgot the last scene.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, but with a more coherent (or more expository) plot, it would have been much better. I give Act 1 an A+, Act 2 an A, and Act 3 a "huh?"