The Magical World Of J K Rowling - Author Of Harry Potter DVD

The Magical World of JK Rowling is an early bid to cash in on the fresh wave of Potter-mania that's about to break in the wake of the first big-screen Harry Potter. Fair enough, except that the makers of this documentary are operating under certain minor disadvantages: they've got no material, and nothing to say. As a result, some fairly desperate padding has gone on. For all that, even though the film runs a mere 39 minutes, it still feels painfully overstretched. For a start, they evidently couldn't get hold of JK Rowling herself. This isn't too surprising--after... some bad experiences with the press following the success of the first Harry Potter book, she virtually never gives interviews (she took her revenge in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which features an obnoxious tabloid hack who meets a very unpleasant fate). The filmmakers make do with excerpts from her speech at the 1999 British Book Awards, interspersed with interviews with critics, bookstore assistants, school kids and teachers. This is all just about as exciting, and illuminating, as it sounds. The film's biggest scoop is a family who knew Rowling when she was a girl, and whose surname is--wait for it--Potter! Not even the most avid HP fan will get much from this limp effort. Sit tight and wait for the film. --Philip Kemp [show more]

Read More