A Christmas Proposal (David O'Donnell)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s that time of year, when more and more people start watching random Christmas films. In the past year or so ago I've bought a few that were new to us from charity shops, and second-hand online stores. Although it isn’t quite December, we decided to start our Christmas film-watching last night. ‘A Christmas Proposal’, set in the United States, sounded as if it might have a bit more substance than some of them…

David O’Donnell stars as Rick, a lawyer who works in the city for an unscrupulous boss called Malone (Tom Arnold). Malone tells him to go to a small town called Fillmore, in the mountains, and convince the people to sell their properties so he can build a new, fancy ski resort. Rick doesn’t want to, as it’s the town where he grew up, but Malone won’t listen to any excuses. And Rick wants to marry his boss’s daughter Reagan… 

Reagan (Sarah Thompson) is entirely a city girl who has no wish to accompany Rick to his childhood home, but she, too, does what her father says. However she’s quite rude about Fillmore and its people, and isn’t even interested in meeting Rick’s mother Maggie (Patty McCormack). And then they discover that the lawyer representing the people of Fillmore, Lisa (Nicole Eggert) is an old flame of Rick’s. The two have some quite heated arguments during a meeting to determine the future of the town. 

Maggie would love them to stay a bit longer but Rick has plans for a romantic proposal, which are abruptly postponed when his car breaks down. And although his old best friend Andy (David DeLuise) is a mechanic - the only one in the town - it looks like it might take some days before it can be fixed…

It’s all a bit predictable, and not as Christmassy as I’d have liked although it’s set in December and there are a fair number of decorations up. The acting is a bit cheesy in places (worse in others), although I quite liked Rick. I found Reagan’s rudeness quite disturbing - but then the people of Fillmore aren’t very nice to her. It seemed particularly odd that none of them seem to know how to pronounce her name, and regularly call her ‘Reegan’ - despite it having been the surname of one of their recent Presidents. 

We kept watching - we weren’t expecting any great acting or memorable storyline, after all, and it wasn’t a terrible film. It gives some idea of what a small town in the mountains of the US might be like, and the threat posed by property developers. The background music (or that which I noticed) mostly consisted of variations on ‘Jingle Bells’, including some really awful singing on a stage - but even that made us smile a little even as we cringed.  At the end there were a few outtakes, not as ‘extras’ but tacked on the end of the film and mildly amusing. 

I don’t know that I’d recommend ‘A Christmas Proposal’ particularly, as there are much better Christmas films available. But it was pleasant enough, and I didn't pay much for it.  We might even watch it again in another decade or so.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

So we came to the end of our two-month re-watching of the eight Harry Potter films. We saw the first part of ‘..Deathly Hallows’ last week, and the second part this week.  We hadn’t seen it since 2018, although I re-read the book a year later. I was, of course, familiar with the story and knew what the outcome would be. But it was still quite a tense film.

The action starts where the first part left off: Lord Voldemort has found the legendary ‘elder wand’, known to be the most powerful wand in existence. So he thinks he is invincible. He knows he will have to fight Harry Potter but with this wand he is certain that the outcome will be in his favour. 

Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione, in the meantime, are still on their quest to destroy horcruxes - the pieces into which Voldemort split his soul, to give him the highest chance of survival. Harry is certain that at least one of them is at Hogwarts, so they make the very risky journey to the school. They are greeted with delight by their former friends and classmates, who are under a new, harsh regime without Dumbledore as head, and are longing for freedom. 

There are a lot of special effects in this film, as the staff cast spells to protect the school, and are later involved in serious magical battles. It’s not quite as rapid action as the earlier film and I didn’t shut my eyes quite so often, but the eventual - inevitable - battle of Hogwarts is full of destruction, with people running, hiding, casting hexes, and often falling.  There are some sad losses though not as many as might be expected.

And then Harry is summoned to his doom. As a person of integrity, he has no option but to face Voldemort, in the expectation of losing his life to save others. It’s a strongly Christological metaphor in a series which has more than a few Christian allusions.  Not that it’s pushed at all: the author of the books professes faith, and belongs to a church, but in a fairly low-key way. 

Most viewers of the film will know how it ends, but I won’t give spoilers. The first time I read the book, I knew what I hoped would happen, but really wasn’t certain that it would. And, for a while, it seemed as if I was going to be disappointed.  

This final film is - in my opinion - an excellent production, the story close to that of the book, albeit with some parts missed out, and a lot of the subtleties lost. It’s not appropriate for younger children with the amount of violence and tension, and the rating of 12 is reasonable. Not that there’s any but the mildest of bad language, and no hint of nudity or sexuality beyond a few passionate kisses. 

I wasn’t sure I would want to see these films a second time, but I’m glad I did. Seeing them all in the space of two months has made it easy to follow the whole story, and not worry over-much about the parts (some of them significant) which were omitted. 

The acting is superb, I was moved in particular by that of Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) and Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith).  All the characters are complex, and the chemistry between the principals flawless. The pace is just right, too, and the visual effects stunning. 

Definitely recommended if you’ve seen the rest of the series, particularly the first part of ‘Deathly Hallows’. Or if you’ve read the books. But don’t come to this on its own as it would make no sense without knowing the full story. 

While this DVD can be bought on its own, it's much better value to buy it with the first part, or in a box set of the entire series. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

Our re-watching of the Harry Potter DVDs is coming to a close, as we embarked on the first of the ‘Deathly Hallows’ films last night. It’s dark, it’s action-packed, and it’s stressful. I had forgotten quite how much, though it’s less than six years since we first saw ‘Deathly Hallows part 1’. 

The plot follows the story in the book fairly closely; the fact that it was turned into two films rather than one allows for most of the book to be included. And it’s rather a bleak story. Harry, Ron and Hermione know that they’re not going back to Hogwarts this year. They also know their families may be in danger. Harry in particular must be protected, and one of the early sequences sees a race to get him from his relatives’ home in London to the safety of the Weasleys’ home. 

There are injuries and a loss, but everyone has to prepare for a wedding. It goes ahead, with a brief interlude where Harry, Ron and Hermione are each given a slightly puzzling bequest from Professor Dumbledore. Bill Nighy is excellent as the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Not that he has much of a role after this; the wedding is interrupted by the news that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic. 

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends know they have to set out to hunt for the remaining horcruxes, all of which have to be destroyed. It’s not explained in this film what horcruxes are; it’s expected that viewers will have seen the earlier films, or at least the sixth, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’. Although each book (and film) stands along to some extent, there’s a huge story arc that runs from start to finish, and it’s much better, in my view, to read or see them in order. 

The friendship of the three is tried many times as they embark on what appears, at times, to be an impossible quest. They escape potential assassins, and manage to get hold of one known horcrux but have no idea how to destroy it. And keeping it with them leads them, one at a time, to become very grumpy.  Hermione (Emma Watson) is highly organised, and keeps their locations secret, but Harry gets more and more fed up, and Ron becomes jealous. Rupert Grint as Ron has a wonderfully expressive face. 

There are battles, and escapes, and fear… there are also some more poignant moments of injuries, and a very sad loss near the end of the film. It’s all extremely well done, in my view, with the pace about right. It doesn’t rush through, but it also doesn’t pause for a long time for scenic shots. I found the fast-action scenes too stressful to watch, so closed my eyes; I probably avoided watching about a quarter or even a third of the film, just listening for the spells and sound effects. 

As for the 'deathly hallows' of the title, those are briefly explained in this film, as three legendary items that formed part of a children's story.  Possessing all three would enable the owner to defeat death entirely. Most people, apparently, did not realise that they were real.

It’s a good thing I’m familiar with the storyline or I would have found it quite confusing. But today’s teenagers (and those who first saw it when it was first made n 2010) are more used to rapid action, in modern films and computer games. I did wonder, a couple of times, if I should stop watching and skim the book again instead; but I kept sitting there, reminding myself that although this is just part one, and it ends on a dramatic and worrying scene, there’s part two still to come.

The rating of 12 is appropriate; the violence and some gore would be very disturbing to a sensitive child, and while the bad language is mild, there’s one scene, as part of a hallucination, that has implied nudity. I’m not sure I’d recommend this film as I think the book is so much better, but for those who prefer not to read, and who have seen the earlier films, this (and its sequel) form a worthy conclusion to the series. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

We didn’t watch a film last week, but last night decided to watch ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, to continue our re-watching of these DVDs in our collection. We first saw this in 2017 although I re-read the book a couple of years later, so I was reasonably familiar with the plot. 

It’s the darkest of the series so far, with a rating of 12: this is due to quite a bit of violence and some very disturbing scenes. But then Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his best friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are 17 now, in the sixth year at Hogwarts: what we would call Year 12 (or Lower Sixth) in muggle schools in the UK. 

The film opens with scenes of carnage around London; it’s clearly shown as random violence, for no purpose other than to create devastation and to let the world know that something terrible is happening. Lord Voldemort is back; even the official Ministry of Magic have acknowledged this now. Everyone is urged to be cautious, and to be careful whom they trust. 

Harry is spending his summer travelling around on trains, and attracting the interest of a local girl - however this is interrupted when Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) appears and whisks Harry off to visit his old friend Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Professor Slughorn was a former teacher at Hogwarts, and apparently rather a good teacher; but he had his favourites, which included Harry’s mother. Dumbledore wants to persuade Slughorn to return to Hogwarts…

Harry then spends a few days with the Weasley family, only to have terror striking there too. And even on the journey back to Hogwarts, he finds himself in trouble, and almost ends up back in London. 

We don’t see much going on in the classrooms in this film, other than Harry’s discovery of an old text-book which has a note in the front saying it belongs to the half-blood prince. It enables him to do very well in one topic, but it doesn’t really have the significance that it has in the book. 

Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been asked to do something dangerous but we don’t know what it is until towards the end of the film, and Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) has promised to look after Draco, and assist him in what he needs to do. We see more of Draco than in previous books, with a much greater depth of character as he works to establish what needs to be done, but also finds himself torn, and very stressed. 

There’s lots of fast action - I had to shut my eyes a few times - and some distressing scenes towards the end when Harry has to follow orders in a disturbing way. We knew what was coming in the final climax, of course, but it’s still poignant. 

There’s some light relief to contrast the dark themes, with growing love interests amongst Harry’s classmates, and an amusing scene (which turns very dark) involving a large dose of love potion. A few other students have larger roles than before, and the acting throughout is excellent.

‘Harry Potter and the half-blood prince’ is not one of my favourites of the series, either the book or the film. But it’s a necessary episode in the ongoing saga, and the end leads on to the beginning of the seventh book and film. It is worth seeing if you’re watching the films, but it wouldn’t stand alone: it’s quite confusing with so much rapid action and visuals rather than explanations, and would be all the more so for anyone who had not seen the earlier films (or read the books).

And, as with all these films, in my opinion it’s well worth reading the books too as there’s so much more in them; characters are fleshed out, other storylines are included, and there’s a lot more discussion about morality, ethics, and the unconditional love that caused Harry to survive the attack on his life when he was a baby.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews