- What a difference a director makes. Alfonso Cuarón's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is so well-constructed that it makes the previous two films feel like missed opportunities. I worry also that it may make the later films feel like disappointments, but we'll deal with those in due time. In this installment, those spellbinding students Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) must face off against the nefarious Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), whose escape from the famed Azkaban wizard prison has everyone worried. Given that the man's madness practically radiates from his animated wanted poster, the audience can easily appreciate why.
- But something isn't quite right in the Ministry of Magic these days. The Minister himself, the perfectly named Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy), is so desperate to recapture Black that he's dispatched an army of diabolical-looking Dementors to guard Hogwart's. Given that this film followed closely on the heels of The Return of the King, I'm surprised the filmmakers didn't attempt something a little more novel (and less Nazgul) in the Dementor's black-cloaked design, but I suppose nobody wanted to earn the ire of millions of faithful J. K. Rowling fans. At any rate, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon, taking over for the late Richard Harris) and the usual stable of professors (Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith) must now conduct classes under the Dementor's watchful eyes...actually, I'm not sure they even have eyes.
- This time around, there are three notable additions to the Hogwart's faculty. One is the redoubtable Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), promoted from groundskeeper, who projects an amusing lack of confidence when teaching Care of Magical Creatures. Another is Sybill Trelawney (Emma Thompson) whose class in Divination involves lots of interpretation and rather little in the way of material. Finally, there is Professor Lupin (David Thewlis) taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lupin immediately comes across as one of the friendlier Hogwart's faculty members, and he quickly warms up to Harry much as he had once befriended the young wizard's parents. Still, a half-seen glimpse of a magical spell suggests, strangely enough, that Lupin is terrified of the full moon. Now why would that be?
- Perhaps the film's greatest accomplishment is that it converts a notoriously contrived storytelling gimmick into a completely riveting set of scenes. I'm speaking of course of the "time-turner," which struck me in the source novel as a device that screamed desperation on the part of the author. In the film, however, the time-turner gives Cuarón a chance to show identical scenes from multiple angles in a visually clever manner that clears up several unanswered questions from earlier in the film. The entire affair is handled so well that I'm even willing to overlook all of the other times the Hogwarts staff could have benefitted from a time machine. Honestly, the movie good enough that I almost felt like employing my remote control as a time machine to go watch the entire thing again.
- I missed Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew, who has a small but important role. Dawn French also gets in a role as the woman in the painting.
