Review, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

You hardly need a magic wand to prod Harry Potter fans into the queue for the latest instalment in the Wizarding World. For everyone else the biggest draw is Mads Mikkelsen.

Mads Mikkelsen in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (PG)
In cinemas
★★½

You hardly need a magic wand to prod Harry Potter fans into the queue for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. For those less immersed in the Wizarding World (the trademark owned by JK Rowling and Warner Bros), the main reason to see this underwhelming film is Mads Mikkelsen.

The Danish actor takes over as the bad wizard Gellert Grindelwald, who was played by Johnny Depp is the first two Fantastic Beasts movies, which are prequel offshoots of the multibillion-dollar HP franchise.

When Depp’s acrimonious divorce from fellow actor Amber Heard became headline news, with allegations of domestic violence, Warner Bros stood him down from the role.

I’m a fan of Depp as an actor but Mikkelsen, seen recently as the tippling high school teacher in the Oscar-winning Danish film Another Round, is a perfect replacement.

He basically brings Dr Hannibal Lecter, whom he plays in the absorbing TV series Hannibal (2013-15), to the magical and Muggle (that is, human) worlds.

This film is set in the 1930s, which means he more or less imports his vintage wardrobe from the 1990s-set Hannibal: beautiful three-piece suits and colourful ties secured with a generous knot.

Early on, over cups of tea with the good wizard and future Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), Grindelwald makes his opinion of Muggles chamomile clear.

“Can you smell it?” he asks. “The stench. Do you really need to turn your back on your own kind for these animals?”

That took me straight to Shakespeare’s Coriolanus – “You common cry of curs! Whose breath I hate” – and I was excited at what might unfold. Unfortunately, nothing much does over the next two and a bit hours.

This movie is directed by Harry Potter regular David Yates and written by Rowling and another HP regular, Steve Kloves, who, outside of the magical franchise, wrote and was Oscar-nominated for the wonderful 2000 drama Wonder Boys, starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire. The central plot line is that there’s a looming election for the leader of the magical world. Grindelwald manages to overcome the fact he’s a wanted fugitive to put himself on the ballot paper.

“The world will hear our voice,” he tells his supporters, “and it will be deafening.”

Dumbledore and the other good wizards, including keeper of the fantastic beasts Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), know that if elected Grindelwald will darken the magical world and wipe out the human one.

They form a ragtag army, including the Muggle baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler, who is also worth watching), to fight Grindelwald and his fascist-looking backers. “Dangerous times favour dangerous men,” warns Dumbledore.

With its 1930s setting, this movie has been billed as an exploration of how wizards joined the fray as World War II loomed. Now, examining a potential connection between magic and human conflicts would be interesting. Was code breaker Alan Turing a wizard? Was World War I secret agent Mata Hari a witch?

However, aside from a few obvious touches such as Grindelwald’s followers wearing black shirts, this potential historical interplay is underplayed. The script is pedestrian, which is disappointing considering the talent of the writers.

Overall, this movie feels like just another, rather unmagical, instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, which has earned about $US9bn at the box office.

The title poses a question: what are Dumbledore’s secrets? I think the main – perhaps only – one is revealed over that cup of tea with Grindelwald.

It’s important yet it’s also something we all knew or at least suspected. And it’s worth noting that Grindelwald leaves the London tea room without drinking any tea.

-

All Hail (M)
Netflix
★★★½

No prizes for guessing the most famous weather forecaster in film history. It’s Punxsutawney Phil, the rodent star of Harold Ramis’s much-loved 1993 movie Groundhog Day. The second most famous is his co-star Bill Murray as the disdainful TV weatherman Phil Connors.

Given the weather is something we talk about every day, it’s no surprise that it has a role, often a villainous one, in a lot of movies. There’s The Perfect Storm, The Ice Storm, The Day After Tomorrow, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, the biblical storm only Russell Crowe sees coming in Noah and many, many others.

The weather can be wildly unpredictable, as shown by recent events in NSW and elsewhere across the nation. Unlike Noah, we don’t receive a tip-off from God so we have to rely on meteorologists to warn us what tomorrow will bring.

So what happens when one of them gets it badly wrong? This is the starting point of the playful Argentinian dramedy All Hail, directed by Marcos Carnevale and starring Guillermo Francella.

This 118-minute Spanish language movie centres on Miguel Flores (Francella), an atmospheric scientist who is the most respected TV news weatherman in Buenos Aires.

We meet him in his pleasant apartment. He is preparing for the launch of a new, stand-alone national weather program that he will host.

“It’s a beautiful day,’’ he says to his adored goldfish after checking the weather maps on a bank of computer screens in his study.

When he heads out, people mob him, taking selfies and seeking his advice. Is it OK to leave the washing on the line, let the dog sleep on the patio, park the car in the open and so on? He’s full of smiles and loves the attention.

He is known as the Infallible One. In a media interview, he does concede that only God is infallible, but adds: “It’s true that in 20 years I have never been wrong.”

When he arrives on set for the new show, there is a surprise. He will have a co-host. Mery Oliva (a dazzling Laura Fernandez) is young, beautiful and has a co-host’s co-host: a chihuahua named Simon. She has two million Instagram followers and is there, Flores is told, to attract younger viewers.

Guillermo Francella, Martin Seefeld, Laura Ferdandez and Simon the chihauhua

The show goes well and Flores finishes with his forecast. The next two days and nights will be “completely clear” and 20C-22C. “I, The Infallible One, guarantee it.”

Then comes a far bigger surprise. At 3am, wind, rain and hail descend and bring the Argentinian capital to a standstill.

The reaction is swift and judgmental. Social media goes ape. There are protests outside Flores’s home. “F..k You Flores” articulates the national mood.

All of this for failing to forecast hail. A mistake, yes, but not as life-threatening as the one in another freakish weather movie, Sharknado from 2013.

This look at the instant, unforgiving, vengeful verdicts of social media is perceptive while still being funny. “They vote, I obey,” says the network boss Gustavo Marin (Martin Seefeld), who orders Flores to take some leave.

He reluctantly agrees and returns to his home town of Cordoba, where he stays with his daughter Carla (Romina Fernandes), who is a paediatrician.

She is a realist, he is an optimist, and their relationship, after a long estrangement, adds emotional depth to the story. His wife, her mother, is dead, and weather is part of that story too.

This is an entertaining, humorous movie that considers what really matters in life. Francella, an Argentinian actor and comedian, is wonderful to watch.

The final scenes are dramatic and, ultimately, surprising. That the weather is involved is an infallible forecast.