Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
#58 in my movie challenge for the year, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or Harry Potter 4, was directed by Mike Newell, whose best known film is probably the decade-old Four Weddings and a Funeral. This Harry Potter movie, like the books, is fun while it lasts, but doesn’t leave much impression beyond that. The special effects are first rate, and well suited to the dragons in particular. It’s enjoyable to see the teenage actors acting like teenagers. Their characters are much more foregrounded than in previous movies and the novels, while the adult teachers mostly inhabit the background. An interesting difference from the book is that the villain is foreshadowed better and earlier. Also valuable is the absence of some of the more trying subplots of the books, such as Hermione’s championing of house elves. Dobby, thankfully, does not appear at all. For anyone who, like me, found themselves itching to take an editor’s pen to Rowling’s overlong novel, this movie does an admirable job of cutting the crap. Unfortunately, what is left is merely a pretty piece of entertainment. For all its aspirations of depth and scariness, it falls strangely flat. I preferred the more palpable complexity of the previous movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.