HARRY POTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE
Rated PG for some mild language and scary images
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman

CineSight Rating

How do you translate one of the most popular and sucessful children's books into a major movie? If you don't want to make enemies of millions of kids worldwide, then you do it very, very carefully! Having read (and enjoyed) the Harry Potter books, I was more than a little skeptical when I heard Chris Columbus had been chosen to direct HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE. After all, this is the guy who has given us Hollywood mush like MRS DOUBTFIRE and BICENTENNIAL MAN.

Thankfully, I needn't have worried. Columbus had the sense to stick closely to the original. This is the movie's greatest strength, and possibly its greatest weakness. Almost every scene in the 2 1/2-hour adventure is lifted directly word-for-word from J.K. Rowling's novel. For those who know the books it is evident that Columbus and writer Steve Kloves have managed one of the most satifying and literal movie adaptations ever. However, for those not already familiar with the story, the breakneck pace at which everything is crammed into the film might leave more than a few heads spinning. I would definitely recommend reading the book to get the most out of HARRY POTTER the movie.

In a brief prologue, an orphaned infant Harry is left on the doorstep of his only remaining relatives, the obnoxious Dursley family. Flash forward to Harry's eleventh birthday. In this modern farytale, he has grown up as the 'Cinderella' of the family; living in a cupboard under the stairs and treated like a slave while Mr. and Mrs. Dursley fawn over their selfish son. Then one day the Dursley household is turned upside down quite literally by magic. Apparently Harry (Radcliffe) is a wizard from a long line of wizards. And the time has come for him to leave his everyday world and begin his formal training in the magical arts.

Harry is whisked off to the amazing and secluded Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hogwart's is the magical equivalent of an old English boarding school ('think Tom Brown's Schooldays'). Here he soon gains two close friends, Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) who help him through the adjustment to this strange new life where the abnormal is commonplace; a school where the pictures on the walls move, where staircases continually re-arrange themselves, and where friendly ghosts of the Scooby Doo variety roam the halls. In this place where anything is possible, Harry stumbles across a mystery which involves not only Hogwarts but also the death of his parents eleven years before...

Fantasy movies invariably include a truckload of special effects, and HARRY POTTER is no exception. The complex story involves dragons, invisibility cloaks, flying broomsticks, a troll and even a giant three-headed dog named Fluffy. But Columbus shows remarkable restraint and creativity in using the effects simply to show us the world of Hogwarts and tell the story, nothing more. The effects are not substituting for story, but accentuating it. The three kids playing Harry, Ron and Hermione are all quite good as newcomers. They are able to slip easily into their roles since they don't carry the baggage of the typical Hollywood child star. And the kids are supported by a very impressive cast of adults: Richard Harris as the kindly and reassuring headmaster Albus Dumbledore; Maggie Smith as their no-nonsense professor; Alan Rickman perfectly cast as the sinister potions teacher Severus Snape and Robbie Coltrane as the kind-hearted giant groundskeeper Hagrid.

I'm sure many parents might be a little nervous about exposing their kids to anything occultic, but the magic in HARRY POTTER is strictly of the fairytale sort. In fact, Rowling's books and the movie are a 'dressed up' tongue-in-cheek mix of Greek mythology and classic fairytales with a dash of Agatha Christie for good measure. You'd probably find Saturday morning TV cartoons to be a worse influence than Pottermania.