JK Rowling’s latest franchise provides some magical and much-needed escapism.
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them started life as a fictional schoolbook, distributed to Harry Potter and his pals, as a reference guide to the wizarding world’s various nefarious cryptozoological creatures. Now, it looks set to become one of the real world’s biggest cinematic phenomena.
As JK Rowling’s first foray into screenwriting, it was always going to cause a stir. Let’s be honest, when JK Rowling SNEEZES it causes a stir. But to be fair to her, this particular sneeze was especially risky. Set in America, and more special-effects laden than all the Potter movies combined, many feared this would take our beloved, cosy Hogwarts universe and chuck it wand-first into hammy Hollywood hell.
Mercifully, nothing could be further from the truth. Fantastic Beasts is not only instantly appealing, but awesomely, uniquely breathtaking. It screeches, swirls and slithers its way into the category of cinematic wonder that hasn’t been captured since the days of great adventure movies like E.T. and the original Jurassic Park.
More than once, there were audible gasps from the cinema audience. And, in an auditorium full of creative media millennials, that’s no mean feat. In the wake of Brexit, Trump and the Walking Dead season premier, we’re all in a sort of awful limbo between shock and depression, and all we seem to do is stuff our mouths with Kettle Chips and occasionally have sex. Emotion and happiness are a thing of the past.
That is, until Fantastic Beasts came along! It’s the definition of unadulterated escapism. Sweeping in from the start to breathtaking scenes of 1920s New York, we’re then literally thrown headfirst into Eddie Redmayne’s magical suitcase of menageries and mayhem!
He plays Newt Scamander, a “magizoologist” who arrives in a gorgeously steampunk-rendered depression era New York, for no other reason than to help magical creatures and generally be an endearingly bumbling Brit. There’s action and adventure from the start, but with the introduction of an “anti-witch” cult, and sightings of a chilling force of evil terrorizing the city, things soon go from frenetically cutesy, to unexpectedly ominous. In fact, this is something the film does very well. It flits between being a crashingly fun creature feature and a dark allegory-laced urban drama, and miraculously manages to pull it off.
And the dark themes are VERY dark. For some, probably too dark. That’s the most impressive thing about Rowling’s screenwriting; she hasn’t shied away from issues that are not only challenging, but also chillingly relevant in today’s modern world. It’ll be interesting to see how the film is received in a post-Trump America. There are fairly unsubtle references in the movie. In the magical incarnation of New York she’s created, there are two separate presidents – one for the wizards and one for the muggles. The leader of the progressive, creative, morally switched-on wizards, is a black woman. The leader of the clueless fat muggles, is an old rich white man who lives at the top of a skyscraper. Make of that what you will.
The cast of Fantastic Beasts couldn’t have been better. Eddie Redmayne was made for the role of the sheltered, vaguely autistic but infectiously charming Newt Scamandar. Relative newcomer Katherine Waterston gives a great turn as the slightly neurotic but nevertheless strong and gathered witch, Tina. Her character is the most recent in an encouragingly long line of strong female characters to have been notably visible in blockbusters in recent months. They’re supported by the wonderful Dan Fogler, who conveys wide-eyed wonderment with spellbinding accuracy; and Alison Sudol, who shines in a breakout role as Tina’s ditsy younger sister Queenie.
A film like Fantastic Beasts could not have come at a better time. Right now, as one of the worst years in recent memory draws to a close, we’re all in desperate need of a little magic.
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is out in cinemas nationwide from November 18th.
