May 29 - Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Today’s movie is a fantasy adventure film with scenes that happen on May 29. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS 

Dobby the house elf visits Harry Potter at the Dursleys to warn him not to return to Hogwarts as bad things are going to happen When Harry refuses Dobby causes trouble that gets Harry locked in his room. Ron Weasley and his twin brothers ‘borrow’ their Dad’s flying car and rescue Harry. On a trip to Diagon Alley, they meet Gilderoy Lockhart, the new defense against the dark arts teacher, and have a run-in with Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucius. When Harry and Ron can’t get onto Platform 9 ¾ to take the Hogwarts Express, they ‘borrow’ the flying car to take them to school. The car crashes, causing Ron to damage his wand and then disappears into the Dark Forest. Lockhart is revealed to be an incompetent teacher and egomaniac. Harry starts hearing things that no one else can and they find Filch’s cat petrified. A message left on the wall in blood says the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. The three friends learn this is a secret chamber supposedly built by Salazar Slytherin, one of Hogwart’s founders, containing a monster that only his heir can open. It had been opened 50 years ago.  A student is petrified and Harry learns he can talk to snakes. After another student is petrified and Harry visits Dumbledore’s office. Hermionie brews shape shifting polyjuice potion.  Harry and Ron use this to assume the appearance of two Slytherin students  and they pump Draco for information, but he doesn’t know anything. Moaning Myrtle, a ghost who lives in a girls bathroom at the school has a book thrown at her. Harry takes the book and learns it belonged to a student from 50 years ago named Tom Riddle. Riddle allows Harry to see what happened 50 years ago at the school. The Chamber of Secrets was opened, a student was killed and Hagrid was blamed. The diary is later stolen and Hermione is petrified. Hagrid is arrested and Dumbledore is removed as headmaster. Harry and Ron go into the Dark Forest, where they learn from Agragog, the leader of the giant spiders that live there that Hagrid is innocent and that the student who died 50 years ago was found in a bathroom. Harry deduces this is Moaning Myrtle and they learn Hermionie figured out that the monster is a basilisk, a giant snake that has been using the sewer pipes to travel around the school.  On May 29, 1993, a message is left saying that Ron’s sister Ginny has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets. Lockhart, deputized to deal with the monster tries to run away, but Harry and Ron force him into the chamber, the entrance of which is in Myrtle’s bathroom. Lockhart tries to use Ron’s damaged wand to erase their memories, but instead erases his own.   Harry enters the chamber and finds an unconscious Ginny and a revived Tom Riddle, who reveals he is Lord Voldemort, Harry’s mortal foe. Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix  flies in and drops the Sorting Hat. Fawkes blinds the basilisk. Harry pulls the sword of Gryffindor out of the hat and uses it to kill the basilisk. He then uses a fang from the basilisk to destroy the diary, which destroys the manifestation of Tom Riddle.  Fawkes’s tears heal a fatal bite Harry had gotten from the basilisk. [1:50:59 to 2:17:57] Harry later tricks Lucius Malfoy into releasing Dobby from his service. Hermionie and the other students are revived and Hagrid and Dumbledore return. All is well at Hogwarts … until next year. 

A good adaptation of the book. It retains most plot elements has a lot of scary and funny moments. If you’re a Potter fan you’ll love it, otherwise probably not.

In Harry Potter and the  Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic Press, New York, 1998) we are told that exams will start on June 1, 1993 at page 283 and that theentrance into Chamber of Secrets happens three days before their first exam at page 284. 

Director - Chris Columbus

Producer - David Heyman

Screenplay - Steve Kloves

Released – November 3, 2002

Runtime – 2 hours 41 minutes

Starring –

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter

Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley

Emma Watson as Hermione Granger

Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart

John Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick

Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid

Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick

Richard Griffiths as Vernon Dursley

Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore

Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape

Fiona Shaw as Petunia Dursley

Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall

Julie Walters as Molly Weasley

Shirley Henderson as Moaning Myrtle

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.