I Was a Teenage Wizard

By RICHARD CORLISS

Like a fraternal twin on a planet with a slightly slower orbit, the fifth Harry Potter film arrives in theaters July 11, 10 days before J.K. Rowling's seventh and final Potter novel hits the bookstores. Readers will soon discover their young hero's destiny, but for now, in movies, Harry is still trying to figure out the scheme the evil Lord Voldemort has hatched and wondering if a teenage boy is up to thwarting it.

Another mystery--whether a new director (David Yates) and scriptwriter (Michael Goldenberg) can build on the intelligent urgency of the past two Potter films--is cleared up in the first few minutes as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) performs some impromptu magic to save an ugly Muggle. The confrontation is swift, vivid, scary and, to the audience, assuring: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be a good one. Perhaps the best in the series, it turns out. The tone and palette are darker, the characters more desperate and more determined. Playtime is over; childhood is a distant memory or just a dream. For Harry and his friends, it's time to grow up and fight Voldemort or surrender to him.

Harry's immediate problem is a new teacher, Miss Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), on assignment to bring discipline to Hog-warts. Pink and perky, she soon becomes the students' nightmare: a cheery commissar, a suburban Stalinist with a smile like a rictus.

But his greater challenge is knowing that the fate of the wizard world rests on whatever strength he can summon. He must face down Voldemort the way other boys confront puberty--as a threat and a thrill that run seismic changes through his body. Precociously wise, Harry also seems prematurely tired, a wizened wizard at 15. And Radcliffe measures up to his character; his bold shadings reveal Harry as both a tortured adolescent and an epic hero ready to do battle. All of which makes Potter 5 not just a ripping yarn but a powerful, poignant coming-of-age story.