SYNOPSIS

Difficult times lie ahead for Harry Potter.

Beset by nightmares that leave his scar hurting more than usual, Harry (DANIEL RADCLIFFE) is all too happy to escape his disturbing dreams by attending the Quidditch World Cup with his friends Ron (RUPERT GRINT) and Hermione (EMMA WATSON).

But something sinister ignites the skies at the Quidditch campsite -- the Dark Mark, the sign of the evil Lord Voldemort. It’s conjured by his followers, the Death Eaters, who haven’t dared to appear in public since Voldemort (RALPH FIENNES) was last seen thirteen years ago -- the night he murdered Harry’s parents.

Harry longs to get back inside the safe walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Professor Dumbledore (MICHAEL GAMBON) can protect him. But things are going to be a little different this year.

Dumbledore announces that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament, one of the most exciting and dangerous of the wizarding community’s magical competitions. One champion will be selected from each of the three largest and most prestigious wizarding schools to compete in a series of life-threatening tasks in pursuit of winning the coveted Triwizard Cup.

The Hogwarts students watch in awe as the elegant girls of the Beauxbatons Academy and the dark and brooding boys of Durmstrang Institute fill the Great Hall, breathlessly awaiting the selection of their champions.

Ministry of Magic official Barty Crouch (ROGER LLOYD PACK) and Professor Dumbledore preside over a candlelit ceremony fraught with anticipation as the enchanted Goblet of Fire selects one student from each school to compete. Amidst a hail of sparks and flames, the cup names Durmstrang’s Quidditch superstar Victor Krum (STANISLAV IANEVSKI), followed by Beauxbatons’ exquisite Fleur Delacour (CLÉMENCE POÉSY) and finally, Hogwarts’ popular all-around golden boy Cedric Diggory (ROBERT PATTINSON). But then, inexplicably, the Goblet spits out one final name: Harry Potter.

At just 14 years old, Harry is three years too young to enter the grueling competition. He insists that he didn’t put his name in the Goblet and that he really doesn’t want to compete. But the Goblet’s decision is binding, and compete he must.

Suspicion and jealousy abound as muckraking journalist Rita Skeeter (MIRANDA RICHARDSON) fans the flames of the Harry Potter backlash with her outrageous gossip columns. Even Ron begins to believe his “fame seeking” friend somehow tricked the cup into selecting him.

Suspecting that whoever did enter Harry’s name in the Tournament deliberately wants to put him in grave danger, Dumbledore asks Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody (BRENDAN GLEESON), the eccentric new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, to keep his highly perceptive and magical eye trained on the teenage wizard.

Harry prepares for the challenging Triwizard tasks -- evading a fire-breathing dragon, diving into the depths of a great lake and navigating a maze with a life of its own. But nothing is more daunting than the most terrifying challenge of them all -- finding a date for the Yule Ball.

For Harry, dealing with dragons, merpeople and grindylows is a walk in the park compared to asking the lovely Cho Chang (KATIE LEUNG) to the Yule Ball. And if Ron weren’t so distracted, perhaps he would acknowledge a change in his feelings for Hermione.

Events take an ominous turn when someone is murdered on Hogwarts grounds. Scared and still haunted by dreams of Voldemort, Harry turns to Dumbledore. But even the venerable Headmaster admits that there are no longer any easy answers.

As Harry and the other champions battle through their last task and the advancing tendrils of the ominous maze, someone or something is keeping a watchful eye. Victory is in sight, but as they edge closer to the Triwizard Cup, all is not as it seems -- and Harry soon finds himself hurtling head-first toward an inevitable encounter with true evil...

Review by
KATHY BLEDSOE

Grab your Thunderbolts and Nimbus 2000s; you are in for a great ride!

There is always a palpable sense of tension in an audience that is waiting for a new installment in a series of movies. You can almost hear the thoughts grinding: Will this movie be as good as the others before it? Will this movie be better than the others? Will the characters still have chemistry? Will the new characters be well-acted and believable? Will the movie do justice to the book? How on earth will the screenplay adapt itself to a story with so much to tell?

These were questions that I struggled not to be concerned about as I waited for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to begin. Within moments of the opening scenes and dialogue, I knew I had nothing to fear. Steve Kloves again scores hugely with a screenplay that masterfully handles a very large book filled with multiple themes and plot twists. Mike Newell reveals his directorial eye for blocking and composition and a director’s mind that understands the personalities and motivations of his characters. The movie fairly reeks of a cast having a great time making Book Four come to life on the screen!

If you are unfamiliar with the Potter books, you must know that as the series progresses the struggle between good and evil becomes stronger and darker. It is really book four that moves Harry Potter out of the realm of young children’s fantasy literature and demands a more mature audience. The movie is exactly the same and thus draws a PG-13 with good reason. The six-year-old next to me was overcome several times by some pretty frightening images—and the impeccably seamless and masterfully created CGI effects had the most jaded part of even me believing in the reality of dragons and the evil Lord Voldemort. (Someone ought to win an Oscar for make-up; you cannot even see Ralph Fiennes, who portrays the evil lord.)

The themes in this movie are also very mature. Harry is confronted with the age old battle of choosing between what is right and what is easy—something we all must make choices about every day. He is hindered along the way with relationships that are changing, enemies that are persistent, an arch-nemesis increasing in power, and his own misgivings about the whole growing up process and his very real desire to be out of the center of attention.

This all sounds very much like what we all go through on a daily basis. Should the world be given its way? Would it not just be easier to conform to the norms of society and do what is expected or accepted? Why listen to the warnings and instructions contained in an antiquated book, spoken by a “good man” who lived over 2,000 years ago—or any other ancient wisdom, for that matter?

After all, if we believe such things, that belief requires action of some sort. Harry, for his part, must choose whether to acknowledge and battle Voldemort. It would be easier for him, as it is for us, to just walk away or live in denial.

Jesus and the writers of the New Testament spoke often of the narrow road that leads to holiness and the wide gate leading to perdition. As Harry struggles with each challenge of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he is constantly challenged to choose what is right over what is easy. And, Harry isn’t always one to make the best choice or be perfectly upright. Just as we may struggle to be “in the world, but not of it,” Harry has moments when he chooses not to be noble and gives in to jealousy, revenge, anger, and a definite snuffing of his usually strong moral fiber.

But, in the moments that really matter, Harry chooses the right course over the easy out. It is this constant choosing that constitutes the process of his maturity, as our choices do for us. As the movie ended, I heard a parent ask a child what he thought the moral of the movie was. The boy, who was probably eleven or twelve, said, “It isn’t always easy to do what is right.” Exactly. It isn’t always easy, but the end result is worth the effort.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire signals a call for perseverance and steadfast progress toward mature actions and deeds—something that Jesus called for, too. The cast is maturing, the themes are maturing, and even the theme music has matured into a fully orchestrated blend instead of the tinny tinkle of single notes that began the first three movies.

There is much worth discussing in this movie, especially with mature children who are beginning to attempt to carve out their own individuality and spiritual journeys. It won’t hurt the conversation by the fact that Harry Potter is a teenager struggling with some of life’s hardest questions and realities, too.