#5: Teen Romance Novel

There is a sizable chunk of this movie that feels like it was written by Danielle Steele when she was 16. Granted, JKR herself steps up the romance in HBP, there's no doubt about it. But the words address the issue with much more subtlety than the Americanized Warner Bros production. Additionally, it's not the major plot point in the book, whereas in a movie with 153 minute running time, the ultra-compelling amorous plot between Ron and Hermione, Ron and Lavender, and Harry and Ginny probably wastes an hour of the time. As you can see from my previous posts, there are many things that I feel are woefully omitted from the movie. Again, plenty of people are probably thinking well, it's a huge book with lots of details, omission is inevitable; this is true, but my issue is not solely omission, but rather the omission of details to make room for more tween romance bullshit. I get that they're trying to market this film to a certain audience, but come on. Everyone was going to see this movie anyway.

A perfect example of my frustration regarding the teen romance aspect of this movie is this: excluding Deathly Hallows, this is by far the Darkest book yet. Voldemort's ascent to power is literally depressing the wizarding community. The ministry of magic is failing to do its job properly (e.g., the arrest of Stan Shunpike), the Order of the Phoenix has lost several key members, and Dumbledore is undoubtedly becoming weaker. All that being said, HOW DOES THIS MOVIE GET A PG RATING? If I had my way, this movie would be NC-17 and every bit of the gruesome descent to despair experienced by the wizarding community would have been the first twenty minutes, NOT Hermione huffing and puffing about Lavender Brown giving Ron googly eyes.

And finally, in the interest of defending some of the importance of the romance aspect of this book, there is one scene that sticks out in my mind that is romantic as well as essential to the advancement of the plot, which the movie (of course) is devoid of. After pages and pages, hundreds of words describing the previously inexperienced feelings that Harry has for Ginny, he is forced to do one of the hardest things humanly possible: voluntarily revoke his requited, divine love for Ginny in order to ensure her safety as he ventures forth to search for Horcruxes and ultimately, destroy Voldemort. This scene in the book does two things for me: one, it illustrates Harry's instant maturation process after Dumbledore's death; and second, it outlines quite clearly the mission he is about to embark upon, which the end of the movie barely mentions.

Thanks for Reading, stay tuned for #s 4 & 3 later today. Comments encouraged.