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'Chamber of Secrets' carries on Potter's adventures in thrilling fashion
Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe in 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'
Warner Bros.
The late Richard Harris plays headmaster Albus Dumbledore
Warner Bros.
A humongous snake slithers through a cave's passages so efficiently, fangs agape, you could just scream.
But children today don't. They squirm and blanch and hop onto the nearest adult relative's lap and hang on. Maybe they've just seen so much.
They'll see a lot more in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which is thick with its own mythology and packed with juicily creepy moments.
I can't imagine what anyone will make of it who hasn't read the first two books in J.K. Rowling's series — four published so far, three more promised — or seen the first of the movies, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001).
But the thrilling set pieces roll out with such regularity, and the particulars of good and evil creatures and characters are so beguiling to observe, particularly when embodied by first-rate British actors, that even viewers with a mere afternoon's commitment might be swept along.
"Chamber" presumes a familiarity with prior events and relationships, but unlike the "Star Trek" movies, it does not do so to the drop-dead exclusion of the uninitiated.
And a lot of filmgoers are initiated. The original ranks No. 8 on the all-time North American box-office chart with $318 million and No. 2 worldwide ($967 million).
Based on the 1999 bestseller, "Chamber" reintroduces us to the Dickensian Dursley family — Harry's Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw), blustery Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths) and pompous cousin Dudley (Harry Melling).
Before the bespectacled Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and best friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) head back in a flying Ford Anglia for another semester or two at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we also meet the episode's most colorful addition, the strutting, self-inflated author Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh).
And we mustn't overlook Dobby, a slimy, computer-generated elf whose loyalties are dubious.
Harry and Ron are reunited at Hogwart's with Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), a Muggle, meaning her parents were ordinary humans.
The main of many obstacles is to sift through the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets.
It seems that a descendant of a most evil wizard, Salazar Slytherin, who co-founded Hogwart's, has unlocked or unleashed something dreadful.
The good children suspect Harry's arch rival, nasty Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and his father, Lucius (Jason Isaacs), who has joined the faculty with intent to flush it free of Muggles.
But the kids' suspicions are redirected at two of the adults they trust, headmaster Albus Dumbledore (the late Richard Harris) and the bearded, burly giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), both of whom seem to have an incriminating connection to the chamber.
Harry establishes contact with Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson), a student from half a century ago, who appears like an apparition. He cryptically describes himself as "a memory preserved in a diary."
Audiences familiar with the Darth Vader plot twist in the "Star Wars" series might be forgiven for wondering whether Rowling will apply it here.
Like "Sorcerer's Stone," "Chamber" includes just one representative Quidditch match (the books have several), although its dramatic function is elusive. The difficult-to-follow game, here — as before — seems like a superfluous detour in a story already packed with more dire objectives.
Because Harry can never be too immobilized by fear to function as the adolescent hero, and because Hermione always seems a step removed from ordinary childly concerns, their red-haired pal Ron bears the traditional sidekick's burden of communicating perpetual horror.
While dazzling us with plant creatures called mandrakes, flying blue imps and spooky caverns, "Chamber" shores up its more nearly earthbound scenes with very good company indeed — Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall — sounding awfully like an older version of her Miss Jean Brodie — Alan Rickman as potions master Professor Snape, John Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick and Julie Walters as Mrs. Weasley.
But it's only natural to be moved by Harris' valedictory in the series and to revel in Branagh's brash Wizard-of-Oz-iness.
The film so smoothly marries the magical to the real — such as real is — that one might overlook the ideas that sprout from Steve Kloves' screenplay.
It proffers the notion that our choices more than our talents determine who we are. And it regularly reinforces the value of goodness, courage and loyalty.
It's useless to argue that such qualities alone, in a fantasy like this, should be sufficient to assure triumph. We're locked in the realm of the supernatural.
Chris Columbus directs with such assurance that one can only be disappointed that, to get out from under such an all-consuming enterprise, he's surrendering the reins after just two episodes to Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien").
Moviegoers of all ages are advised that "Chambers" runs 161 minutes (up from "Sorcerer's" 152). And that doesn't count the wait beforehand and any commercials and trailers. Those gallon-size soft drinks take no prisoners.
| 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' |
Director: Chris Columbus
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Kenneth Branagh, Rupert Grint
MPAA Rating: PG, for scary moments, some creature violence and mild language
