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Just Wild About HARRY

© Reviewed by Amy Harlib

I may be one of the few aficionados of the SF & F genre yet to read UK writer J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. It's just because the projected series will span seven volumes of which only four have been published and are gracing my shelves awaiting my idiosyncratic desire to hold off until all the installments can be read in sequence at one go.

Thus, I am not ignorant of the phenomenally wide appeal of this fantasy opus, having followed its development with acute interest (and wondering why superior writers such as Diana Wynne Jones don't receive as much recognition -- but that's another report).

Aware of the premise and and possessing the books without yet knowing the details and minutiae of the plots other than what can be found on the jacket copy, I approached the movie (hyped with the energy that makes it seem destined for a success equal to its literary inspiration) with no preconceptions and an open mind.

Informed by publicity that the film's makers cooperated with the author to faithfully stick to the book's storyline and the creator's vision, I just have to assume this statement to be true. To this avid SF & F reader and moviegoer, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone makes a fine and charming (in every sense of the word) cinematic outing. The plot, centering on the eponymous protagonist played winningly by the lovable Daniel Radcliffe, appeals so hugely because it embodies everyone's ultimate wish-fulfillment -- to discover one has heretofore undiscovered powers and that one's worth will thus be recognized.

From the contemporary English setting, orphan Harry Potter, mistreated for 10 years by his Aunt Petunia Dursley (Fiona Shaw), Uncle Vernon Dursley (Richard Griffiths) and cousin Dudley (Harry Melling), on his 11th birthday gets whisked away from the dreary world of mundane "muggles" by Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), a giant, teddy-bear-like guy. He comes from and helps transport Harry to his true home in a parallel continuum greatly resembling ours but where magic works and otherwise mythical beings truly exist. This common conceit in fantasy fiction -- of an alternate mystical world whose preternaturally gifted denizens can cross over into ordinary reality, but the existence of which remains unknown to everyday folks -- gets depicted well here.

Hagrid, the caretaker of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, introduces Harry to this otherworldly version of the "classic" British boarding school where he has been invited to attend. He makes friends with the well-meaning, likable klutz Ron Weasely (Rupert Grant) and the feisty, precocious Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and stands up to the deliciously menacing Draco Malfoy ( Tom Felton). At Hogwart's, Harry also learns to master the curriculum of sorcerous skills involving wands, flying brooms, potions, spells and herbalism from an eccentric array of adept instructors.

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