The book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is somewhat longer than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s / Philosopher’s Stone. The movie, too, is a bit longer, about ten minutes. This makes one wonder what will happen when, in 2005, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a book unsuitable for small children who are not strong enough to lift it, is made into a movie. Perhaps a miniseries?

Story (hopefully, nobody here will be bothered by possible spoilers): Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, looking terribly well-fed) is warned, by a house-elf named Dobby, that he should not back for a second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry because something awful is going to happen there. Naturally, he goes anyway, meeting his old friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and, of course, Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Grounds and Keys (the huge and massive Robbie Coltrane). Then people start turning up petrified, apparently by a monster that lives in a rumored “Chamber of Secrets” built by Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders, and under control of a mysterious “Heir of Slytherin” — who, when it’s discovered that Harry can talk to snakes, is popularly believed to be him. Naturally, our three young heroes take it upon themselves to track down the mystery, and Harry has to face down the evil Lord Voldemort a second time.

The film follows the book fairly closely. Some scenes, of course, had to be left out, for various reasons. We may suppose that the powers-that-be decided that Sir Nicholas’s Deathday Party, at Hallowe’en, would have grossed out too many parents (small children, who delight in such stuff, would probably have enjoyed it). Less understandable is the omission of the overheard conversation between Lucius Malfoy, his son Draco, and Mr. Borgin in Borgin & Burkes; this, as I remember, is fairly important for the development of the character of the vile Lucius Malfoy, here played by newcomer to the series Jason Isaacs, most notably remembered (by me) as the equally vile Col. Tavington in The Patriot (he also, and more recently, played the quite sympathetic and totally unmemorable Clark Devlin in Jackie Chan’s The Tuxedo ⁽¹⁾). Kenneth Brannagh does an excellent job as the posturing and ultimately unreliable Gilderoy Lockhart, whom all the ladies “fancy” (a point that is, perhaps, underplayed in the movie compared to the book). My memory may be playing me wrong, but it seems to me that Ginnie Weasley (Bonnie Wright), Colin Creevey (Hugh Mitchell) and Justin Finch-Fletchley (Edward Randell) are all underdeveloped with respect to the roles they play, especially Ginny (who was also slighted somewhat in the first movie). David reminds me that the poltergeist Peeves is _still_ absent from the films.

I worry a bit about the future of the series. The kids all show signs of growing up; well, I guess this would be about the time that they would be going through puberty in the series. Problem is, if the movies get delayed at all (and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is not due out until summer of 2004), the actors will be growing faster than their characters. Well, perhaps the series can survive that. After all, the actor playing high-schooler Clark Kent in Smallville is really about 24 years old, and nobody seems to notice …

Ultimately: an enjoyable movie, even if not completely faithful to the book. Perhaps, in fact, more enjoyable than the first movie in the series, despite being almost ten minutes longer.

Warning: There is a final scene after the credits. It is not a long scene, and contributes nothing to one’s understanding of the plot, but it is amusing. You can afford to sit there through an extra five minutes of scrolling text to see it. Well, once, anyway.

⁽¹⁾ Watch for Isaacs in the dual role of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling in next year’s version of “Peter Pan”.