The first half of a two-film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's final book about the battle between the damaged boy-wizard Harry (Radcliffe) and the dark Lord Voldemort (Fiennes), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is, as a whole, the finest Potter film yet. From the superlative digital effects and original score to the saga-scoped camerawork, Deathly Hallows is all business – taut, fraught, and fearsome. When Voldemort's minions, the Death Eaters, storm the Ministry, Harry and best friends Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint) go underground to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, talismans in which Voldemort safeguarded splinters of his soul. Deathly Hallows is still truthful to the spirit of these decent, sometimes goofy kid-characters, whom we've watched grow up in the course of 10 years. They remain fundamentally the same, only now with jaws set hard from troubled times. They've been through something epic, and for the first time, truly, so have we.
D: David Yates; with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson.
Opened 11/19/10