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“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón Warner Bros. Pictures

All the signs are there: Harry Potter is growing up.

This third installment in the series of films based on the
immensely popular books by J.K. Rowling signals a coming of age
both for the three main characters, and for the films
themselves.

A third year at Hogwarts finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron
(Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) knee deep in their
appropriately awkward transitions to teen-hood. Not only do all
three occasionally get to trade in their drab school uniforms for
jeans and trendy sweaters, but each of them take big steps toward
shedding some of the demons (both literal and figurative) of
childhood.

And then there’s the delicious sexual tension growing
between Ron and Hermione. The absolute terror that sweeps across
Ron’s face when Hermione accidentally grabs his hand is
excruciatingly funny, and finally brings at least a hint of some
much-needed romance to these previously squeaky clean, basically
kid-fare-only films.

No doubt “The Prisoner of Azkaban” owes most of its
emotional maturity to its director, Alfonso Cuarón (“Y
Tu Mamá También”) who takes over for Chris
Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter movies. Gone
in this third film are the impossibly cheerful colors and lighting
schemes employed by Columbus to make his magical school of
witchcraft and wizardry seem like something straight out of
storybook land. Cuarón has taken the world that Columbus
created and darkened it a bit. Shadows are longer, monsters are
scarier, and for the most part, outcomes of the adventures of our
heroes are murkier. At last, a Harry Potter movie that actually has
some tension and uncertainty as to how it will end!

Other additions to the franchise include Emma Thompson as the
rather crunchy, visually challenged Professor of Divinations Sibyll
Trelawney, the fantastic British actor David Thewlis as
Harry’s friend Professor Lupin, and Gary Oldman in an
all-too-brief appearance as the dangerous escapee of the title. It
seems to be both a blessing and a curse that these movies are able
to attract such stellar acting heavyweights: on the one hand,
it’s thrilling to see all these great talents gathered
together, and on the other it is frustrating that they only serve
as window dressing to the action surrounding the young stars.

Also notable is Michael Gambon stepping in to play Albus
Dumbledore for the late Richard Harris. While the actor has kept an
Irish accent which helps provide for a little continuity, this is
certainly a younger, less stoic rendering of the Hogwarts
headmaster. The difference is slightly jarring, but it would not
have been better had Gambon simply done a Harris impersonation. He
makes the character his own, which is a good thing.

The same can be said for Cuarón, who manages to infuse
Potter, now a young man, with a new sense of self, all the while
staying faithful to Columbus’, and really Rowling’s,
world.

-Sommer Mathis