When watching the fifth film in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," it might be useful to have a checklist for adolescent depression on hand. In this installment, Harry Potter exhibits frequent sadness (dead parents: check), a sense of hopelessness (his archenemy, Voldemort, is overwhelmingly evil: check), social isolation (his mentor, Dumbledore, is ignoring him: check), feelings of guilt ( Cedric Diggory died in his arms at the conclusion of the previous movie: check), increased anger (fighting with Ron Weasley again: check), and an inability to enjoy previously favorite activities (not a game of Quidditch to be found: check). Perhaps a more appropriate title would be " Harry Potter and the Prescription for Prozac.
" While fans may decry the absence of this subplot or that minor character from J.K. Rowling's 870-page book, what's most noticeably missing in this movie is sunlight.
From the opening scene of a scorching summer day quickly doused by an icy typhoon, the weather forecast is generally dreary, full of dank fog, pounding rain, and moonless nights. More than once you expect even the scenery to crawl back into bed and pull the covers up over its head. This might just be the most morbid summer blockbuster ever made.
It's dark days for the Hogwarts gang when Harry ( Daniel Radcliffe) uses magic to protect himself from a Dementor attack while on summer holiday with his piggish Aunt and Uncle, violating the rule against waggling his wand in front of Muggles. After Harry is expelled from Hogwarts for this indiscretion, an inquisitorial hearing before the Ministry of Magic sees him acquitted, but it sets the tone for the rest of the movie: pain, suffering, and threats of torture. The Ministry of Magic spends the film vigorously denying the return of the evil, nose-less Lord Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes) and Hogwarts's headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), finds himself ostracized as an alarmist for saying otherwise.
Disgrace and resignation follow, and he's replaced as Hogwarts headmaster by the latest Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dolores Umbridge ( Imelda Staunton), a pink-clad fascist who believes in order, fussy collectibles, and carving helpful homilies into the flesh of disobedient students. With war on the horizon and only the top-secret and understaffed Order of the Phoenix standing in the path of Voldemort, Harry and his classmates organize a resistance cell and teach themselves how to fight back against the dark arts. It's after one of these illicit training sessions that Harry enjoys his first kiss with Cho Chang ( Katie Leung), although "enjoy" might be too strong a word.
Throughout this film, Harry doesn't do much more than endure, constantly tormented by his growing bond with Voldemort, restlessly dreaming of beckoning hands and slithering snakes. He's so quick to anger, so persecuted, and so isolated that he seems less like a potentially powerful wizard than a potential school shooter. The plot, which manages to condense the longest book in Ms.
Rowling's series into the shortest of the Potter films, whizzes by like the Golden Snitch in a Quidditch match, and the result is a movie that feels like one long nightmare, punctuated by swirling headlines, close-up shots of Harry moaning in his sleep, and the repeated image of the snarling caretaker, Argus Filch ( David Bradley), climbing a teetering, 100-foot stepladder to nail Orwellian proclamations to a stone wall. When watching the fifth film in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," it might be useful to have a checklist for adolescent depression on hand.
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