Teen Titan
Stirring 'Goblet of Fire' sparks darker direction for Harry Potter

The fourth and newest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter And the Goblet Of Fire, is not for the uninitiated. It's a roaring good adventure full of magic, humor, and heartbreak, and you need not have read J. K. Rowling's ambitious book to enjoy it. But it helps to know who the players are going in, since incoming director Mike Newell doesn't waste one precious instant of his two hours and 37 minutes providing any kind of program.

We're off to a running, er, slithering start the minute the WB logo hits the screen; Newell's camera eye zeroes into the depths within, past a fearsome skull-shaped rock, and out into a gloomy graveyard for a snake's-eye-view of evil Lord Voldemort—what's left of him—plotting his return to power. It's a darker, scarier prologue than usual, a prelude for the darker undercurrents in this first PG-13-rated Potter film.

Gone is the slapstick villainy of Harry's wretched relations, the Dursleys. This time, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are bunking with Ron (Rupert Grint) at the Weasley household. The stalwart trio, now 14, along with Ron's irrespressible older brothers, the twins, Fred and George (scene-stealers James and Oliver Phelps), and their kid sister, Ginny (Bonnie Wright) are off to the international Quidditch Cup match, a gigantic spectacle delivered with exhilarating CGI splendor. Until Voldemort's skull-shaped Dark Mark appears in the sky and his Death Eater followers (concealed in pointed KKK-like hooded robes) run riot through the peaceful tent city camped outside the stadium. (Although here it's more of a stampede than the violence described in Rowling's book.)

Back at Hogwarts School, the teens have more than homework to contend with: the Triwizard Tournament, in which a champion from each of three magical schools competes for a prestigious silver cup. No one is more horrified than Harry when the Goblet of Fire that selects the competitors spits out his name. Since the contest is restricted to upperclassmen, everyone—including Ron—believes Harry jinxed the Goblet somehow to enter the meet in pursuit of fame and glory. In fact, Harry dreads the dangerous tasks demanded for the competition against three older, stronger, more experienced participants: Hogwarts' heroic Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson, in a striking debut), Bulgarian Quidditch sensation Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), and alluring Frenchwoman Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy).

Harry steels himself to outwit (and outfly) a dragon in one stirring sequence, and swim with sinister merfolk at the bottom of the lake in another. But more terrifying is the upcoming Yule Ball, for which all fourth-year boys are commanded to pluck up the grit to actually ask a girl out. Seeing these kids decked out in evening dress (even the hand-me-down robes that make poor Ron "look like my Great Aunt Tess") is as much fun as the magical sequences.

With almost no backstory about the previous generation, this installment is less concerned with the past than with the character Harry's developing in the present. Always with the help of friends he's supported along the way, Harry rises to every challenge, from the Tournament tasks to Ron's jealousy; from the bond he forges with Cedric (Harry's rival not only in the Tournament, but in the affections of Harry's dream girl, Cho Chang), to his climactic showdown with the first fully coporeal Voldemort we've yet seen (played with serpentine malice by Ralph Fiennes).

Otherwise, there's very little interaction with the grown-ups— except for Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Brendan Gleeson's piratical Mad-Eye Moody, the wackiest Hogwarts teacher yet. This one's all about the kids, and Radcliffe plays Harry with poise and humor (not to mention stamina), whether sprouting gills and webbed feet to swim underwater, or appearing in his first bathtub scene. (Moms, hold onto your daughters—or vice-versa.)

Rowling's house-elf subplot has been abandoned, the flying dragon chase scene goes on past the point of even willingly suspended credibility, and fans will carp that Dumbledore has way too much aplomb to ever grasp Harry frantically by the collar, as Gambon does here. But when Dumbledore intones "Dark and disturbing times lie ahead," when everyone must choose between "what is right and what is easy," who doesn't get chills? Newell crafts a solid bridge into Harry's perilous future.

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE With Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Brendan Gleeson. Written by Steve Kloves. Directed by Mike Newell. A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13. 157 minutes. (***1/2)

Review published in Good Times, November 17, 2005