★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
This new yarn from J.K. Rowling is akin to retreating from
2016’s horrid winter into an old blanket. It’s warm and cosy with familiarity,
but the loose threads are becoming more obvious, and the cold still seeps in
through little holes. Eddie Redmayne stars as magizoologist Newt Scamander.
Magizoologist Newt Scamander stars as the Eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who.
He’s got the floppy hair, tweed suit, ungainly limbs, whimsical shyness, and
even a sonic screwdriver (well, it’s technically a wand, but it’s still essentially a glowing
stick he uses to open locked doors).
He also has his own TARDIS, albeit in the form of a
magically enhanced suitcase, home to a menagerie of magical beasts. The
contents of the case are let loose on 1920s New York, where Scamander is befriended
by wide-eyed ‘nomaj’ Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and hounded by plucky ex-Auror
Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterstone). As the trio scurry around in an attempt
to return the creatures safely to the suitcase, another kind of sorcery stalks
the streets. A dark force is causing calamity, and the Magical Congress of the
United States sends the mysterious Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) to
investigate. A second Salem movement is also on the rise, and, within its
ranks, a reclusive teenager (Ezra Miller) secretly rebels against his
oppressive mother (a ferociously intense Samantha Morton).
I’ve made it sound like you need a whole book to even
understand the setup, but the film eases you into the flow with a good helping
of earnest adventure before the underlying plot strands begin to convalesce.
Much like the later Potter films, Beasts strikes a good balance between child-like
immersion in the sparkling spectacle of a magical world, whilst still drawing
out the darkness inherent in that universe. The production design alternates
between gloomy, effervescent and gothic, and it’s very hard not to be won over
by James Newton Howard’s soaring score.
When any franchise enters a new era, there’s always a great
deal made of ‘bridging the gap’. With Newton Howard providing the musical connection,
the character who guides us through is not Redmayne, but Miller, playing the sunken-faced
and scary-haired Credence Barebone. Carrying more than a little Draco Malfoy in
his glare and posture, he works wonders with a subplot that is occasionally
misjudged in its intensity. The Potter universe
is no stranger to darker themes (each film after Prisoner of Azkaban thrived increasingly on this), but the shadows
here exist outside the wizarding world, in a place that feels all too real. It’s
especially jarring when bookended with scenes of Newt, Tina and Jacob capering
about. Still, the dénouement of Miller, Morton and Farrell’s relationship allows
the movie to become Return of the Jedi for
about two minutes (you’ll know once you’ve seen it), which is rarely a bad
thing.
The entire arc of Farrell’s character is revealed the
instant we see his haircut, but he’s clearly having good fun. He certainly draws
a far more rounded character than his nemesis, Newt; a Tumblr fanfic creation
brought to life. Any investment we have in our heroes is channelled through Dan Fogler, who
has come a heck of a long way since I first saw him in Fanboys. His performance carries nuance, genuine
emotion, and charm that doesn’t require a single wand wave.
Sadly, subtleties in acting and well-crafted details in the film’s
milieu are betrayed by broader strokes. Small, delicately handled moments
between Jacob and Tina’s sister, Queenie, are a treat, at odds with the reductive
thumbnails of their overarching development (or lack thereof). Likewise, any
display by the titular beasts is at its most endearing when focusing on
Scamander’s tiny, pocket-borne Bowtruckle or the gold-loving, platypus-like
Niffler. By the time massive monsters like the Erumpent begin crashing through Central
Park with no real consequence, any charm is wearing off.
Even the city itself has this problem: the tiny shop windows
and foggy back alleys are unique and intriguing, but the skyscrapers and lines
of traffic feel copy-pasted (probably because they are). By the time we get to the effects-heavy finale, it’s
only the emotional nature of the climax that redeems its use of 2016’s default
antagonist; a CGI cloud. If I may be allowed to return to the Doctor Who analogy, Beasts’ final act is very much in the same vein as a ‘monster of the week’
episode: a fair bit of crying, some very iffy special effects, and, most
importantly, an emphasis on empathy over any kind of confused pseudo-logic.
Thankfully, its spirit is less Stephen Moffat and more Russell T. Davies. If
there really are four more of these to be conjured, let’s hope it stays that
way.
