PoA second viewing

[pauraque_bk]

Last night I saw PoA with my mom and brother. My mom hasn't read the books, but enjoyed the first two movies, so she was my test case for whether the film would be comprehensible as a stand-alone.

She seemed to really like the movie for the most part, and didn't feel like it was confusing in general.

She didn't get a sense at all that the Snape-Sirius thing was personal. To her, Snape was basically clueless, and just wanted to save the kids. I mentioned "Vengeance is very sweet", and she agreed that it was odd in the context. This pretty much confirms my opinion that there's not really a reason for Snape to be in the movie at all, which is somewhat annoying.

She didn't wonder how Remus knew the map was a map. She figured, he's a smart guy who knows a lot about magic, it makes sense that he'd know. I talked a bit about the fact that it was the four friends who'd made the map, and that in the book it serves to emphasize the trust that was broken, but Mom didn't think that would have added much to the movie. The movie is essentially about Harry and James -- "the child is the father of the man", Mom said. The book's great epiphany is that Harry can't kill a man (even a traitor); the movie's revelation is that Harry has the power to grow up and be a man.

We talked about the story having the structure of a detective novel, dropping all the clues you need and then pulling it all together in a big expository scene at the end. "You're probably wondering why I've called you all here to this Shrieking Shack..." Mom said. Hee.

She seemed to have a gut-level revulsion for Peter, which rather delighted me -- he's supposed to be revolting. It was quite a kick to watch her make these horrified, train-wreck-can't-look-away realizations about him -- "So, he was a rat all that time? Twelve years, and he never changed back? And he was Ron's pet? And he slept in his bed? Ohhhh, gross!" ♥

I mentioned that one of the reasons I like Peter is that he's the only villain whose evil plans actually work, and whom Harry fails to outwit. "Well, that's just because he scurried away like the little rat he is," said Mom.

She also said that for a second, when Harry saw Peter's name on the map, she thought of "all that was left was his finger", and flashed to Thing from the Addams Family. Bwah! Now THAT's a fic! :D

(By the way, did human!Peter actually have a visibly missing finger in the movie? I couldn't quite see.)


You know, some people thought Peter's movie characterization was awful, some people loved it, and... I don't even have an opinion. His voice is so strongly established in my mind that the movie practically had no effect on me. This isn't the case with, say, Remus, whose voice I have a really hard time pinning down. Even after just a couple of viewings, movie!Remus has encroached really far into my personal canon.

What I can say, though, is that I don't like what the screenwriter did with Peter. What's wonderful about the Shrieking Shack is that Peter and Sirius are desperately competing for Harry's mercy (James's forgiveness, in their minds), and they both end up feeling like they have it. Once Peter is spared by Harry (a huge emotional release for him), he doesn't have any more dialogue -- on some level, he's satisfied. In the movie, he keeps going on about "anything but the Dementors", and his pleas to Ron and Hermione come after that... It weakens what's interesting about the character and the scene.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed the movie more on second viewing, probably because I wasn't on the edge of my seat going ohmygodhowaretheygonnadothis the entire time. Oddly enough, it felt a bit more like the book's pacing -- the Shrieking Shack scene didn't feel so shockingly brief, and the Time Turner sequence seemed longer.


Random observations:

-Sirius has on striped prisoner's robes. Peter is wearing a pinstripe suit. A visual pun: You have to look sideways to see the truth. Very nice.

-Does anyone remember the Heaven's Gate cult? With the purple blankets? The Great Hall sleepover scene looked creepily like that. I'm just sayin'.

-A wizard in the Leaky Cauldron is reading "A Brief History of Time". I noticed that the first time, but not very many people seem to have mentioned it in their reviews. Mad foreshadowing props to Cuaron.

-Mirrors. After the Dementor leaves, Harry sees his reflection in the train window -- looking into himself, his memories. The Boggart scene opens with the camera moving through the mirrored wardrobe -- looking into our fears. As lycoris recently pointed out, when Harry turns to look at Peter in the corridor, he sees a mirror -- himself. His past?

Comments

[florahart]

Visibly missing finger: yes. When he's close up grabbing onto Harry, though it's not the whole finger, more like half.

[pauraque]

Off the top of your head, any idea which finger? Which hand?

[florahart]

I'm thinking left ring, but I could be wrong.

[psammead.livejournal.com]

I'll second the left ring finger. I'd been looking on my second viewing, having been entirely distracted by everyone else in the scene the first time around.

I'm glad to hear that a person who hadn't read the books didn't find the plot full of gaps; everyone I know who is willing to see the movie has already read them, so this has been a point of contention between some of us.

And while I noticed the wizard reading _A Brief History of Time_, it never occurred to me to connect it with what happened later! Now I feel silly.

[pauraque]

Darn. It's supposed to be his right index. Which wouldn't matter except for GoF, where it's his right hand he chops off.

I was as surprised as anyone that my mom wasn't confused by the movie; I thought it was really borderline, whether people would get it. But I think it's just that we fans are hyper-aware of what's important to *us* in the story.

[theatresm.livejournal.com]

Waiddaminnit. You're saying that in canon it's his right index, or in your fic?

'Cause if it's his right... and it's his right hand he chops.... An argument could be made that he didn't exactly give it his best shot, so to speak. (Probably doesn't matter -- I don't think JKR would get that tricky -- but it's still an interesting idea that PP might have worked a flaw into the ritual.)

I did see ABHoT in TLC, and giggled. So much for separation of M/W Lit in Movie!Canon.

ETA: And I assuming that's what you were going for, hence the "Darn."

[pauraque]

[Pettigrew pointed] at Black, and Harry saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing. (PoA 269 UK paperback)

He stretched his right hand out in front of him -- the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand, and swung it upwards. (GoF 556 UK paperback)

Our best evidence is that Peter is left-handed (in addition to the self-mutilation all being done left-handed, he grabs and uses Lupin's wand with his left hand), so not only is he giving Voldemort the hand that's already mutilated, he's not even giving up his dominant hand.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

(at the risk of adding another commenting statistic!)

I think it was his left *middle* finger (or a half of it), I really don't think it was his index and unless it was another mirrored sequence it was definitely his left hand

[theatresm.livejournal.com]

I don't think I like the new quickpost system. *glares at second post*

[nicolthewhore.livejournal.com]

my theory is that cuaron took kloves' script and turned it into an old style german monster movie, like nosferatu, and that's why peter was such an amazingly raunchy and not necessarily well-done character in the movie. he was a reference to those old films, along with the werewolf and tom the innkeeper (quasimodo). just my theory though, its possible i was trying to justify the movie to myself.

[pauraque]

I get what you're saying here. I just have a hard time analyzing what was done with Peter, on some level, because my personal sense of him is SO STRONG. It's like there's no way for me to look at it objectively.

I mean, it was a wildly overdone performance by any normal standards -- but Peter is, in fact, a hysterical, squalling wreck of a human being. If anything, I thought he wasn't pathetic enough... I wanted to see him cry. He seemed too put-together... like he didn't really believe his own excuses.

[nicolthewhore.livejournal.com]

i agree! i didn't think he was pathetic at all, really. i thought he was just gross. his grossness made him pathetic, but in the book its vice versa. at least i think so. i think, in the book, that peter was unaware that his pleading made him look so bad and villainous, because he was trying to get sympathy. now, he DID get sympathy, but he got it from an unlikely recourse -- harry's father. i mean, it was obviously his trump card, because it took several pages for him to get there. so yeah, i disagreed completely with movie!peter, although i understand what cuaron was trying to do with him.

[pauraque]

his grossness made him pathetic, but in the book its vice versa.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, here. Since you don't get a visual in the book, the reader's horror comes from the realization of just how pathetic he is, and how messed up in the head. But he's only in the movie for about five minutes (as opposed to twenty or thirty pages in the book), so they took a shortcut.

[caesia390.livejournal.com]

Yay.

Sadly, the bulk of my PoA reaction has been spread out into individual conversations, squeesome personal journals, arguments... the like. i just can't put my thoughts down coherently or in one place.

but i just wanted you to know that I CONCUR - with the general mood of your reaction, if not the details that grabbed my attention the most.

and my father had very similar reactions to your mother, coming from a similar state of non-involvement - he liked the lack of exposition, enjoyed the film as a whole, and he hadn't liked the first two.

just saw it for my third time. ^_^ i loved it all the more. i adore movie-peter, because he is so vaudeville... Pin stripes.... Well, pin stripes are just plain awesome. i don't think they really need any further justification. >:} (fudgefudgefudge<3!)

so, so, so sexy... the music in this one had me squirming.

[pauraque]

Interestingly, my mom has since asked me to explain some of the stuff that was left out of the book, like how Sirius escaped, why Peter betrayed the Potters (I tried to keep my answer short!), and the like. She's considering reading the book, which is quite a surprise.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

To me, too, Peter is way too firmly established in my mind for movie-Peter to take over. Movie Peter was totally not what I was expecting at all. Whereas Sirius totally has no characterization in my head that I can clearly visualize. Remus is somewhat there, and definitely does not have a mustache.

I love Fudge's pinstripes--totally awesome. And was it just me, or did Dumbledore wear the same outfit during the ENTIRE movie?

[pauraque]

was it just me, or did Dumbledore wear the same outfit during the ENTIRE movie?

Nah. He has an entire wardrobe full of nothing but faded lavender dresses with corset tops.