Heaven knows
we could do with some magic right now. Back in 2001, when J.K. Rowling first
sketched out her textbook spin-off from the Harry Potter series, she could
scarcely have foreseen what forces would be at play in the Western world come
the end of 2016. Then again, some threats remain eternal. Fifteen years
on, the film version of Fantastic Beasts
– directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by Rowling herself – emerges at
the exact right moment to snaffle hearts and pocket money alike: here are two-and-a-bit
hours of first-rate distraction-cum-bedazzlement that nevertheless run close
enough to current events as to feel like some pop-cultural pep rally.
Rowling,
Yates and super-savvy producer David Hayman here expand the Potterverse to the
US via the sort of migrant’s tale that moved us in 2014’s Paddington and last
year’s Brooklyn. The traveller here is Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, a
fantasyland Attenborough (and purported author of that textbook) who arrives in
20s New York clutching a single suitcase containing the many rare creatures
he’s collected upon his travels. Little does he know it, but he’s stepped into
the epicentre of a cosmic tussle between good and evil.
It takes a
while to establish who’s who, but broadly, the forces of liberation – operating
out of a prototypical UN – encompass Carmen Ejogo as the West’s first female
president of colour, Colin Farrell as her unsmiling second-in-command, and a
sparkling Katherine Waterston, seemingly styled after Olive Oyl, as the
loose-cannon cop who becomes Newt’s guardian angel. The forces of
oppression count among their number Samantha Morton as a hate preacher keen to
initiate a new Salem, Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin’s demon seed) as
her resentful adopted son, and Jon Voight as a newspaper magnate whipping up
anti-wizard sentiment. Already, you can see why FB might chime with the reality
of late 2016.
What’s
immediately noticeable is that this is Rowling on a bigger canvas, both
rebooting and upgrading that universe the movies first began constructing back
in 2001 (and which may now look a touch dated to 21st century
consumers). Yates, who steered home the Potter franchise, has the budget this
time to go beyond Hogwarts and sweep over a meticulously recreated period New
York, while his VFX team have a field day, amusing themselves (and us) in
cramming every frame with funny in-jokes and Easter eggs. I suspect the
self-operating iron will be on many Christmas lists this year; but you’ll also
coo at the characterful menagerie – giant dung beetles, clingy stick insects et al. – bursting forth from Newt’s
carry-on luggage, and chuckle heartily at the moving illustrations adorning the
covers of the books these characters take to bed with them. (At last,
accompanying adults may say: a blockbuster that promotes reading.)
These
throwaway pixellations admittedly prove more playful and striking than the
smash-up-the-city finale by which Fantastic Beasts fits the modern event-movie
template, but generally Yates strikes a satisfying balance between the human
and the virtual. If Redmayne’s twitching and eyelash-fluttering seems a
leftover from The Danish Girl – and his rump-shaking before a horny CG rhino is
flatly demeaning – this performance grows on you, and Newt is that species of
naïf youngsters will likely adore. And while
Yates doesn’t have RADA’s finest with which to bulk out his supporting cast
this time, he displays a sharp eye and ear for enjoyable American types. He has
a real boon in Dan Fogler as the muggle baker who gives good, uncomprehending
cutaway whenever events get too fantastical, while Alison Sudol offers a better
quality of flapper than Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby provided; the closing moments
also give rise to an unusually effective star cameo.
It would work
just as well as a standalone for kids who’ve never heard of Ron Weasley, but
retaining the steady Yates’s services ensures the new film coheres with the
Potterverse’s best qualities – not least Rowling’s ongoing interest in the
fight for a kinder, more caring world. Her creative philanthropy here extends
to imagining a humane form of execution by the state, although elsewhere her
Britishness shines through: an entire setpiece is built around the safekeeping
of a teapot, and there’s a restorative final-reel rainstorm. It’s typical
of a major motion picture event that delivers its spectacle while keeping an
eye on the small stuff and out for the little guy – high-quality, high-reward
product that those of us in the cheap seats probably needed from the dream
factory at a point where reality was getting a touch hard to take.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is now playing in cinemas nationwide.
