Trade publication The Hollywood Reporter has a review of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
Here’s an excerpt:
The long goodbye for the most successful film series of the century thus far begins with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, the darkest and least characteristic of the batch. Gone are Hogwarts and the sense of security that went with it, gone is any of the joy of youth, gone is more than just a measure or two of John Williams‘ original music. With Harry, Ron and Hermione left largely to their own devices on often forbidding terrain, this grim beginning-of-the-end odyssey has a very different feel from any of its predecessors — a development slightly more disconcerting than it is welcome. That this holiday release will be a huge international attraction is beyond question, even if the real fireworks mostly await the finale’s second installment, which arrives July 15.
More than even the most faithful of the earlier episodes, this film feels devoted above all to reproducing the novel onscreen as closely as possible, an impulse that drags it toward ponderousness at times and rather sorely tests the abilities of the young actors to hold the screen entirely on their own, without being propped up by the ever-fabulous array of character actors the series offers.
You can read the full review HERE.
