HP Reflections

Do you ever wonder if maybe you're going the wrong way with your life?

I think everyone does, sometimes. It's happened to me a couple of times in the last several weeks. First when Ben took me to the city to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for my birthday. I was sitting in the theater, watching them all dance around with big smiles and bright colors and thought to myself "Man, I REALLY want to be down there with them. On that stage."

Then it happened again when we saw HP 7 Part 2 on Monday. I was sitting in the movie theater, watching all those incredible veteran actors thinking "I'd give anything to work with those people."

It made me a little, (okay, a lot) depressed afterward to think that maybe I was pursuing the wrong dream. Maybe I should have gone to Post, maybe I should have pursued acting. People told me "have a fall-back career." Well, an English degree isn't much more stable than a Theater degree.

I suppose it could just be that I'm unhappy with my dog-walking job and the lack of better options and that the depression I feel is just my coming down from the adrenaline rush that live theater and great acting gives me. Or...I could be at the completely wrong place in my life.

As far as HP goes though, it was fantastic! I honestly hated the 7th book- I thought it was horrendously written, and that the ending was total cop-out because she was too lazy to plot it so the kids could figure things out for themselves, instead of bringing Dumbledore back from the dead to explain things. Someone did a really good job adapting it to screen. It was engaging.

Of course, the acting was incredible. That's what started this whole post. Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman...amazing, talented people. They bring so much to these movies. Honestly, I don't think they'd be nearly as watchable if they had a different supporting cast because, let's face it, Harry is the most flat character in the whole series. Does anybody really care what happens to him?

Especially in this movie, they brought so much. Even with a fraction of the screen time as the younger actors, they brought exponentially more depth and emotion to the movie. Ralph Fiennes gives a master class on acting with his performance. Think about it: that's not his face. He has ONLY his eyes to work with. Now, go back and watch what he did with them.

Even Michael Gambon, who I'd always thought was a terrible Dumbledore, did a nice job in this movie. The scene in Limbo at King's Cross was the most like Dumbledore he'd ever been.

And Maggie Smith is one of my favorite actors ever, so I'll just leave it at that.

I'd give damn near anything to work with such wonderfully talented people.