FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM directed by David Yates (UK, 2016)
The spirit of Mary Poppins is not dead; it’s just been Marvellised. The bottomless bag this time around contains not household fixtures but numerous gremlin-like creatures.
The ‘beasts’ of the title are harmless if handled by a nerd but destructive in unscrupulous hands. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander plays up the role of an awkward Brit for all its worth to the point that he looks half retarded most of the time. The plot device of hooking him up with a ‘no-maj’ (American for muggle) in the portly shape of Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) provides a welcome foil to his gormlessness.
JK Rowling further demonstrates her instinctive empathy with tormented adolescence through the invention of the ‘obscurus’, a black cloud of malevolence unleashed when children feel anger and discomfort. In addition, a literal witch hunt provides more of the requisite villainy but it is the anarchic antics of the beasts that steal the show. Continue reading
