J. K. Rowling’s second novel may sparkle less than the first, but this time, Christopher Columbus’ adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets works magic with Rowling’s words. The director does away with the conventions of prose and dives into the visuals.
In the opening sequence, Columbus skips breakfast and hops on to dinner where Harry’s Uncle Vernon woos a client with the wonderful, life-improving virtues of drill bits.
With his restless owl, Hedwig, Harry remains upstairs, making no noise and pretending not to exist. What makes this the worst birthday for Harry is that even his best friends have forgotten to write.
Unlike the cute, fairy tale house-elf illustrated in the Scholastic Press edition of Rowling’s book, Columbus’ Dobby is a loony, little creature with eyes and brain the size of tennis balls.
Dobby admits stealing Harry’s mail thinking this would discourage the 12-year-old from returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Setting the tone for the detective plot that follows, Dobby’s warning spells disaster for Harry.
Dispensing with lock picking and tiptoeing, the director jumpstarts Ron Weasley’s rescue attempt and Vernon’s roaring resistance. On the flight to The Burrow in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, doubts about Dobby’s motives and possible association with the Malfoys remain unspoken.
Sacrificing detail on the altar of pacing, Columbus tosses out what might have been an interesting peek into ordinary wizard-home life – garden de-gnoming. Another plot thread the director cuts from Rowling’s novel is the suspicious behavior of Ron’s older brother, Percy. Nevertheless, Errol, the arthritic owl of the Weasley’s makes several gag deliveries that punctuate the film.
Turning in an entertaining performance, Julie Walters reprises her role as Ron’s mom, Molly – part mother hen, part saber-toothed tiger. With blushing comedy, Bonnie Wright also reprises her role as Ron’s younger sister, Ginny. Mark Williams completes the humorous hat trick with face twitching line delivery as Ron’s dad, Arthur.
The director turns travel by Floo powder into an alarming, life threatening, and consequently, amusing spectacle and translates Harry’s pronunciation of D-Dia-gon Alley into a visual pun. Columbus retains the Hand of Glory for shock value, leaving its psychological significance in the pages of Rowling’s book.
Instead of at the Dark Arts shop of Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, Lucius Malfoy first meets Harry with the Weasleys at Flourish and Blots bookstore. Rather than brawl with Arthur, however, Lucius merely performs the sleight-of-hand that gains sinister significance later on.
With hissing venom, Jason Isaacs plays Lucius like a penny-dreadful villain.
Columbus’ anal-retentive attention to detail is evident when the same train-station guard from Sorcerer’s Stone stands at Platform Nine and Three-quarters as Harry and Ron crash into the barrier. The director introduces an old, turquoise Ford Anglia and the Whomping Willow at Hogwarts with smashing results.
In Columbus’ Chamber, the school caretaker, Argus Filch, welcomes Harry and Ron into the dungeons where the Potions Professor, Severus Snape, awaits instead.
When the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, lets Harry and Ron off with a warning, Snape looks as though Christmas had been canceled. Nevertheless, the next morning, Ron receives a fate worse than expulsion when his mother mails him an explosive, public reprimand – a Howler.
Although the director shows screaming baby Mandrakes repotted in Professor Sprout’s Herbology class, Columbus does not present them full-grown, throwing a party, or trying to climb into each other’s pots.
When Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, unleashes a cage full of jabbering, rocketing Cornish pixies, he fails to contain them.
Emma Watson has a Hermione moment when she freezes the eight-inch annoyances in midair like floating, electric-blue snowflakes. Looking like a Renaissance-air runaway, Kenneth Branagh plays the full-tilt dandy, Lockhart, with over-the-top aplomb.
At the Quidditch pitch at the crack of dawn,the Gryffindors cross brooms with the Slytherims. In the presence of Ron and Hermione, Draco Malfoy and his teammates flaunt their new Nimbus Two Thousands and One broomsticks. The verbal hostilities escalate, and Draco calls Hermione a Mudblood, an insult to wizards of Muggle parentage. "Eat slugs, Malfoy!" says Ron as, with a wave of his tapped-up wand, the attack backfires.
Minutes snail by as Harry faces detention with Mudbloods and murmurs of a monster in a secret chamber on his mind.
The director excludes the epileptic lengths Filch takes to conceal his Correspondence Course in Beginner’s Magic that unmarks the caretaker as a Squib with no magic abilities despite wizard parentage. Columbus also axes Rowling’s subplot in which the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, holds a somber a Deathday Party blue-lit by tapered, black candles and hung with the sounds of thin instruments sawing in the dark.
Once again, John Cleese gives a poor performance as Nick, and nearly as disappointing are the absent antics of the poltergeist, Peeves, Edward Randell gives an invisible performance as the distrusting Hufflepuff, Justin Finch Fletchley.
The writing is on the wall when suspicion falls on Harry being the Heir of Slytherin and behind the paralyzing attacks at Hogwarts.
Columbus bumps up the Duelig Club scenes to thicken the plot. Ten points are taken off the director’s scorecard for the abrupt cut to the Quidditch match. Despite this, the broom-racing scenes outstrip recent Bond escapes and Skywalker chases.
Making up for the lackluster portrayal of the Weasley twins, full marks go to the actor playing Fred for his, "So no pressure, Harry," quip as the rogue Bludger attempts to hammer Harry’s head.
Playing a first year Gryffindor and Potter-fan, Hugh Mitchell is golden-haired photographer, Colin Creevy, once written up by Rowling as a mousy-haired shutterbug. Creevy takes a picture of the attacker but is silenced with a look.
Instead of appearing in the deleted Deathday Party scenes, the ghost, Moaning Myrtle, makes her first appearance in the first floor girl’s bathroom, which holds the key to the Hogwarts mystery.
The director whips up the Polyjuice Potion process with a when-in-doubt-go-the-library solution.
Transfiguring themselves to look like Slytherin students, Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to trick Draco into revealing who is behind the attacks.
Kudos goes to the actors playing Crabbe and Goyle acting like Ron and Harry pretending to be, er, well, Crabbe and Goyle.
Editing Rowling’s letters, Columbus writes off the ghastly sight of golden-haired, angel-winged, and harp-strumming dwarves delivering pink Valentines courtesy of Lockhart.
Under suspicious circumstances, the very secret diary of Tom Marvolo Riddle reveals the shadowy figure that opened the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago.
Turning in a forgettable performance, Robert Hardy is the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who escorts the suspect to Azkaban when one of Harry’s closest friends becomes the next petrified victim.
Following the unfortunate incident at Hagrid’s hut, the director heads straight to the Forbidden Forrest where tiny trails lead to Aragog, another clue to the mystery that lies beneath Hogwarts. In the film, none of Aragog’s children speak, and nothing is said about his wife, Mosag.
Just before Aragog’s children have Harry and Ron over for dinner, an animated, old friend drops in and provides a convenient excuse to decline.
Down the snaking pipes beneath Hogwarts, Harry comes face to face with the attacker, and the Heir of Slytherin is revealed.
In the end, the showdown between Dobby and Lucius invites comparison with a shrunken master and his wayward apprentice in a recent episode concerning clones. Dobby’s reward is Lucius’ loss.
Like Lucius, Columbus learned his lesson. His follow-up feature is darker and more menacing than the first. There is more action, less exposition. Instead of adhering to the printed page, the director opts for judicious cuts and serves up humor with generous servings. While Harry and Ron’s voices have gone down an octave, Columbus’ Chamber goes up a notch.
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