Is Snape evil? Who's going to die in Book 7? And what clues has J.K. Rowling herself dropped? See previous posts if you're interested in those topics.
First, a disclaimer: I've never thought the Harry Potter movies came close to the books in emotional power, verbal hijinks or general richness of experience. That said, I've seen them all (except No. 5, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ) and enjoyed them.
But for years I've been mentally casting the movies. Sometimes my preferred actors even got the roles for which God seems to have intended them.
-- Alan Rickman was born to play Snape.
--Maggie Smith was perfect for McGonagall. (In fact, I keep expecting McGonagall to take on some Jean Brodie-esque qualities. Don't you think she was carrying a torch for years for Dumbledore?)
--I'd have cast Alec Guinness as Dumbledore except for the little problem of his having died. Richard Harris was quite good. And he died, too. This is not a good omen. Michael Gambon is not right. He lacks a necessary twinkle. And he's wearing a beanie, for crying out loud!
At least a few of you agree, based on comments below. (As of 12:42 p.m.)
Ian McKellan was busy, I guess. Which leaves Peter O'Toole. He'd have hammed it up wonderfully.
--Sirius Black was a role made for Daniel Day-Lewis. Thin, dark, intense, romantic but dangerous. That Gary Oldman guy just misses the point.
--Ralph Fiennes would have made the perfect Lupin -- sympathetic, with undertones of nervous despair and tragedy, and just the faintest wolfish cast to his features. (Note the adjective that describes a wolfish kind of face is lupine.) Fiennes is wasted as Voldemort. With all that makeup, who can tell what the guy underneath looks like anyway?
--And the actor playing Lupin -- David Thewlis -- is wrong, wrong, wrong. "He's just kind of ugly and he has a bad haircut," says one of my friends.
--I'm looking forward to Imelda Staunton as Umbridge. I just hope she's prissy enough. My midnight-movie source reported today that she was fabulously evil and twisted.
--Slughorn? I envision Richard Griffiths. Too bad he was already snapped up to play Uncle Vernon.
--Helena Bonham-Carter may be too petite and too curly-haired to play Bellatrix Lestrange, who is described as having long, sleek black hair. But her face is suitably cavernous, with eyes that bore into you, so maybe that will work out. Again, my midnight-movie source, who is a very tough critic, approved, saying Bonham-Carter was suitably "deranged."
Who's in your dream cast for the movies?
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15 comments:
You are dead on about Michael Gambon as Dumbledore - he's terrible. Richard Harris was wonderful - he radiated that loving nature that is so crucial to the role - this guy has none of it. He is cold, and you never get a sense that there's a warm spot anywhere in there. I am so disappointed he's still in. I had the same thought when I saw him - that Ian Mckellan would have been perfect...LOR is over now, so can't they get him???
Snape is PERFECT...he's amazing.
Let me add this: if they don't change the actor playing Dumbledore, no one is going to care as much when he dies. They have SORELY missed the boat on that one!
Helena Bonham Carter was good as Bellatrix--gave it a twist that was a cross between Elsa Lanchester and Tim Burton (to whom she's married).
I always thought Peter Wingfield would have made the perfect Lupin. But I'd love to see Terry Jones as Slughorn--he'd have the right degree of smarminess...
Overall I'd have to say the movie was pretty good and Imelda Staunton was PERFECT as Umbridge...a nice streamlining of an unwieldy book. And the newcomer as Luna was just about spot-on perfect.
Enough already! You need to cut short this vacation to Geekville and return to the Naked City.
I totally agree with you on Gambon. He's ok, but nothing compared to the departed Mr. Harris. Harris was almost perfect to me in the role and had every bit of that grandfatherly/Santa Claus quality I've always imagined Dumbledore would have if he was real.
Ian McKellan would have been great, but of course he was doing those little films down in New Zealand at the time.
I've already seen pictures of the girl that is playing Luna Lovegood, and frankly she doesn't fit the book's description at all. Ah well, I've resigned myself to the fact that Hollywood will never get the charecters perfect in any book adaptation. :(
I think rebecca forgot to take her happy pills today!
Sheesh.
I was hoping for Patricia Routledge as Umbridge.
The bit about St. Hedwig as the patroness of orphans is interesting. In Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" the girl's name is Hedwig, and although she wasn't technically an orphan, for all the attention her parents paid her she might as well have been. I wonder if Ibsen knew the connection?
The girl playing Luna was fabulous. She wasn't quite as spacey as the book's version, but plenty out there. Imelda Staunton was just as good.
As usual, I was disappointed in both Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. I agree wholeheartedly with your friend about the latter.
Michael Gambon needs to go. He's horribly unsympathetic and a thousand other bad things.
John Cleese was wasted as the little-used Nearly Headless Nick. He would have been GREAT as Cornelius Fudge.
I also think Kenneth Branagh was wasted as Lockhart. He would have been much better as Sirius Black or Lupin.
Have to say I agree with everyone about Michael Gambon, and the Daniel Day-Lewis suggestion was great (although I like Gary Oldman well enough), as was Terry Jones to play Slughorn.
Since I haven't seen the OotP movie yet I can't really comment on Imelda Staunton's performance as Umbridge, but I will say that purely from the point of view physical appearance she doesn't match my expectations. I suppose that it would be difficult to cast a character who is described more than once as "toadlike", but Staunton looks much too normal. Actually, in my mind's eye the perfect visual representation of Umbridge would have been American actress Kathleen Freeman (the nun in The Blues Brothers). Too bad they couldn't have found a British version of her.
On Gambon, right on. Although I'll give him credit for doing better in Order, he was horrific in Goblet. The Pensive scene where he pulls Harry out and disgruntled, says "I've searched and searched..." makes me cringe every time. This entire scene shows Dumbledore as feeble, overly emotional when stumped, and stupid when he finishes his answer to Harry's question of what happened to Crouch Jr. (with a boringly suspicious tone) "...why do you ask?" Though I didn't see much of that poor acting in Order, it could have still been much better with another actor that held much more leadership stigma than Gambon, like McKellen (who by the way, refused to replace Harris only because he didn't want to carry a Wizard type-cast to finish his career--they were done filming LOTR after Harris passed).
I agree with you for the most part, but strongly disagree with you on Lupin. Maybe it's Thewis' persona, but instantly with his non-threatening voice and easy going, easily approachable persona, he gives off the type of personality that Harry's dad would have hung out with, and why Harry likes him so much. His hair needed to be combed? Of course it did, but I believe they weren't trying to keep him tidy since he struggles so much with the wererwolf thing.
Imelda Staunton was perfect. I, at first, thought Kathy Bates would have been perfect. But because she's not British and they want to keep a mostly British cast, they had a better choice and to their credit, they found her. The director added a few scenes to really grasp her annoyance, but she nailed down Umbridge perfectly.
I also disagree with others saying that the girl that played Luna wasn't good. Bear in mind, they have to take out lots from the book, so they didn't have a lot of time to show her looniness in the movie. So instead, they instantly establish her as loony on the cart ride, and yeah, my first reation was that she did that well. For the rest of the movie, you only get a small sampling of her craziness, but if you already established her as crazy, you don't need continuous proof.
anyway, my 1.85 cents (inflation minus taxes)
David, I had my doubts about Imelda Staunton because she doesn't look toady enough, too. But she does such a good job with the character aspect of the thing that I'm going to forgive the lack of toadyness.
Imelda Staunton was good, but I still think that Patricia Routledge would have been better.
There is only one Dumbledore: Richard Harris. When I read the books and watch the movies, I re-interpret the scenes in my mind as Harris would have acted and spoken. Harris had that quiet but enormously powerful "presence" that I imagine Dumbledore to have. Gambon is too expressive, too emotional, moves too much, speaks too nasally, etc...
You forgot to mention that Robbie Coltrane is the PERFECT Hagrid!
I have to agree with you with most of the things you said about the cast. Except I thought Imelda Staunton was missing something, though I can't put my finger on it. The "point" that Gary Oldman was missing is that Sirius is not as serious (no pun intended) as he was played in the movies. In the books he's daring and more carefree. I definately do not like Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. Gambon has a mean quality about him that Dumbledore just doesn't possess.
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