michigandaily.com/arts A R T S
MONDAY
JUNE 7, 2004
'Flower Poet' disappoints
Cute hoodie, Hermione.
By Raquel Laned
Daily Arts Writer
MOVIE REVIEW
When Hogwarts fans learned who
was to direct the third chapter of the
. Harry Potter series,
there were many Harry Potter
raised eyebrows: and the
"Alfonso Cuarn? d
Isn't he the one that Prisoner of
did that porno?" Azkaban
Yes, Cuar6n At Showcase
directed the steamy, Wamer Bros.
unrated "Y Tu
Mami Tambiin," but if any of these
doubters had seen "Y Tu Mama ... ,"
they would have known that Cuar6n's
expert eye for color and meticulous
attention to tone would be a perfect
match for J.K. Rowling's bewitching
novel. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban" may upset the strictly-by-
the-book Potter fans, but it's the first
of the series to feel like a film, rather
than a movie version of the book.
Instead of trying to fill "Azkaban"
with as many details from the book as
possible, Cuar6n focuses on establish-
ing mood. The result: Hogwarts has
never looked so beautiful - or creepy.
The opening scenes are shrouded in
perpetual rain. A surrealistic bus ride
that looks like it came straight from a
Jean-Pierre Jeunet film ("The City of
Lost Children") leads to a train haunt-
ed by dementors, which resemble
translucent grim reapers. When the
train finally pulls into Hogwarts,
accompanied by a children's choir
eerily chanting "Something wicked
this way comes," you know this isn't a
typical kid's flick.
While the previous two films in the
series treat Harry (Daniel Radcliffe)
and his pals Ron and Hermione
(Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) as
one entity , "Azkaban" orbits more
around Harry alone, and he spends
more time in introspective solitude or
talking to newfound mentor Professor
Lupin (David Thewlis, "The Big
Lebowski"). The young wizard has
much more to cope with here - his
life is threatened by runaway convict
Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, "The
Fifth Element").
Harry's personal struggle also
shows that these little witches are no
longer children, but are on the cusp of
adolescence. Harry's nemesis Draco
Malfoy (Tom Felton) delivers low
blows that in the first two films are
merely mean; here they challenge
Harry's masculinity. Cuar6n also adds
sexual tension between Ron and
Hermione, who play their romantic
parts with a perfect blend of awkward-
ness and fear.
Of course, England's all-star cast
- including Maggie Smith and Alan
Rickman - give spectacular perform-
ances. Newcomers Emma Thompson
as a flighty mystic, Thewlis as the kind
yet mischievous Lupin and quintessen-
tial bad-guy Oldman are welcome
additions to the cast and play their fan-
tastical characters with a touch of
human vulnerability that makes them
seem real.
While Ron's comic antics and a
few subplots from the book may be
missed by die-hard fans, Cuaron suc-
ceeds in fusing entertainment and
artistry with "Azkaban." A grownup
filmmaker is exactly what the Harry
Potter series needed.
By Melissa Runstrom
Daily Arts Writer
In her debut novel, "Apprentice to the
Flower Poet Z.," Debra Weinstein prom-
ises a story of
blind ambition, Apprentice to
lust, competition the Flower
and decadence. Poet Z.
But the author
falls short, By Debra Weinstein
skimping on the Random House
characterization
of the book's quirky academics.
The story opens as the protagonist,
an aspiring poet named Annabelle, real-
izes her dream of working with the
famous poet Z. But Annabelle's tyranni-
cal idol has a weak grasp of ethics, and
Annabelle is destined for disappoint-
ment - or even worse.
Weinstein constructs an intriguing
framwork for Annabelle's coming-of-
age: A fresh transfer from a Long
Island community college, she's a naive
junior at New York University on a
poetry scholarship. Z. is adulterous,
demanding, dictatorial and petty. As an
assistant to Z., Annabelle expects to
learn from a top literary mind; instead,
she finds the faculty's daily interactions
have little to do with poetry or literature
and is relegated to running errands and
doing research for her mentor. After
this initial letdown, Annabelle looks for
guidance elsewhere - from another
NYU instructor who just happens to be
Z.'s archenemy. The scene is set for
Annabelle's jarring fall from academic
and emotional naivete.
But "Apprentice to the Flower Poet
Z." fails as a fully developed work.
Weinstein describes circumstances and
events well, but does not develop many
characters, including her protagonist,
sufficiently. Even though Annabelle
narrates the story with a strong voice,
she remains someone the reader never
really knows, and the reader is rarely
shown her motivations. Weinstein
slights her supporting characters, like
Annabelle's James Joyce-obsessed
boyfriend, with only minimal charac-
terization. Even Z., whom Weinsten
develops more fully, doesn't get the
treatment she deserves: The interest-
ing parts of her life - incest, adultery
and other family secrets - are merely
touched upon, hanging limp without
adding intrigue to the plot.
To Weinstein's credit, she has creat-
ed an easy-to-read first novel. But at
the end of her tale, the reader is disap-
pointed: She doesn't establish an
emotional connection between readers
and characters. The book is a com-
mentary on the dog-eat-dog world of
literary academia when it could have ,
been a rich exploration of literary ver-
sus emotional life.
P