- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is one of the more pronounced examples of what I would label the paint-by-numbers approach of adapting a book to film. By the time 2001 rolled around, J.K. Rowling's best-selling young adult novel franchise was already halfway through its run, and it was no doubt obvious that any halfway decent film adaptation would represent a decade-long boon to the production company, Warner Bros. I suspect that's how we ended up with director Chris Columbus' film, which manages to be almost precisely halfway decent by making the safest and least controversial choices possible. It's a tolerable product helped by its strong ensemble cast, but ultimately about as exciting to watch as a Cliffs Notes video summary of a story that was already pretty simple to begin with.
- The basic plot is no doubt familiar to anyone currently between the ages of ten and thirty (or their parents), but let me mention it anyway. In brief, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is a very special boy. Although he enters the film in the clutches of his vulgar adoptive family (Fiona Shaw, Harry Melling, Richard Griffiths), Harry is quickly summoned to attend Hogwart's, which is basically an extension of the Oxbridge system for wizards. Yes, Harry can cast a few odd spells, but it will take the guidance of magic masters like Profs. McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Snape (Alan Rickman), and Quirrell (Ian Hart), and the famed headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris), for Harry to live up to his full potential. Although the details are sketchy, the fact that Harry survived an attack by the dreaded Voldemort (sorry, "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named") that killed his parents suggests that Harry is very special indeed.
- But at first glance, little Harry seems like your average, unassuming, bespectacled student, albeit one enrolled in a magical boarding school. He makes friends with the redoubtable Ron (Rupert Grint) and brilliant Hermione (Emma Watson), finds an enemy in the slimy Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), and gains an ally in the gentle giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), the last of whom always finds a way to say too much. When Harry's not taking classes on such intriguing subjects as "Potions" or "Defense Against the Dark Arts," he's off playing a wizard's equivalent of cricket called Quidditch, toppling stray trolls, evading three-headed dogs, and gazing into magical mirrors. I would apologize for the fact that Harry's activities come across as a list of items to cross off one-by-one, but that is probably the most apt description for the way the film proceeds.
- While the film's general look and story are hardly as special as Harry himself, it would be a mistake not to mention the staggering amount of British acting talent contained in this film. Some, like Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, and Alan Rickman, are always excellent and do not disappoint here. Others, like Robbie Coltrane and the trio of child actors prove to be far better than perhaps anyone might have expected. Casting child actors is surely always a gamble, but in this case it is a gamble that certainly paid off in the subsequent Harry Potter films. Toss in cameos by two charismatic Johns (Hurt and Cleese), and you may occasionally find yourself having fun despite the film's general blandness. That said, the first time I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was in the same week that I first saw The Fellowship of the Ring. Guess which fantasy film had a better director, a better story, and, yes, a better troll.
- It's a big cast, and I didn't even get to Warwick Davis or Zoë Wanamaker.
- Based on the novel you may have heard of by J.K. Rowling.
