I live in a Potter household. Afterall, I’m a Harry and she’s a Cho – and yes we were disappointed when that relationship did not work out… fucking TWILIGHT. But with the series at an end, we were bummed. Yoko’s read THE CURSED CHILD and has hopes that it’ll be adapted to screen one day, but when the news hit us about JK ROWLING expanding the Magical world across the Atlantic to the United States of the Jazz Age… well – that hit most of the fetish marks – the only issue was that we wouldn’t have the cast we’ve grown to love. Which basically makes FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, a crazy expensive pilot that Warner Brothers is committing to going on 5 adventures with.
Well, that’s pre-release hype – surely they’ll need to see how this performs, but with what we hear is a worldwide $200 million dollar opening weekend that they’re conservatively making… it seems pretty damn safe. Especially since FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM has Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski in it.
I know, I know – I should be raving about Eddie Redmayne or Ezra Miller or Colin Farrell or Ron Perlman or Samantha Morton or Jon Voight and Katherine Waterston. Yeah, they’re all interesting as you’d expect from JK Rowling’s magical repository betwixt her ears, but for me… This boy named Harry is all about Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski. You see, I had Harry with the original series. But Fogler’s J & K complete my initials. Weak sauce, I know, but my brain is Abbie Normal. Let me get to the real reasons I love Jacob Kowalski.
The film has some seriously dramatic mischief to start with – really kinda reminded me of the way that DOCTOR STRANGE began. Menace afoot. Then we’re coming to America. I’ll skip ahead a bit to where Jacob Kowalski enters the tale. By the time my personal hero character of FANTASTIC BEASTS arrives, we know that Newt Scamander has something disturbing going on with that suitcase of his. All manners of critters that we know next to nothing about, but we’ve only seen a felonious platypus escape… but we see a rotund mustachioed Dan Fogler in a dashing pair of duds headed to a bank to get funds for his Pastry Bakery dreams he hopes to accomplish for his beloved Grandmother.
You see, Fogler’s Kowalski is no Space Marine, nor is he magically inclined. He fought in the War to End All Wars, but since returning has entered the Chaplin hell of Modern Times – working in a canning factory doing assembly line work. Something he doesn’t feel made for. He wants to fatten society with sinful delights. Newt Scamander takes a seat by him, but is a frantic weird fellow, who seems to be chasing something, but when he leaves the shared bench, there’s a strange egg left behind and Kowalski is… a stand up kinda guy that would never leave an egg unattended. He’s kinda like Horton that way.
Let’s just say, by the time Kowalski leaves the bank with Newt – he’s up to his neck in magical experiences. And in the United States, if a Muggle/Nomag witnesses something magical, they must immediately be Obliviated. Remember Hermione’s parents? Exactly. Only, destiny has different plans seemingly for Kowalski.
Fogler plays Kowalski as though he’s trapped in a dream for much of the film, and when he finally has a moment of profound realization inside a suitcase… He realizes there’s more to reality than he’s been taught. It isn’t all war, canning and baking as he thought. There is magic to this old world of ours. With Newt, he finds a budding friendship, and through his adventures he even finds the beginning of a forbidden romance. Not only that, he has a talent for survival. Probably something he picked up overseas.
As stunning as 20’s New York City is – the magic side is just as splendorific as you’d dare to imagine. To me, Newt is a more robustly magical Hagrid, but much more fragile… but again, tougher than you’d think. You know how HARRY was always wandering through those early films with a gobsmacked look of wow upon his brow? That’s also Kowalski. I also find myself wanting Fogler to play Lou Costello in the inevitable UNIVERSAL remake of ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Actually… OBLIVIATE – there – you never heard that idea. Moving on.
By the time Katherine Waterston’s Porpentina Goldstein drags Newt & Kowalski back to her place and Jacob and Alison Sudol’s Queenie Goldstein set eyes upon one another and there’s like this explosion of magic that required no VFX – it’s all in the way these two look at each other – but damn if you don’t feel the sparks. It’s there – it’s romance in an AGE OF INNOCENCE manner… slivers of scintillation.
Meanwhile – over the whole thing – over every experience, every connection that Kowalski makes with Fantastic Beasts and the folks trying to find them… you know OBLIVIATE is coming. If you thought the Ministry of Magic in England was a bitch, wait till you discover the American Branch.
Now I know – I haven’t really explained what all’s happening in FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, but that’s what you go to the theater for. What is here, should be discovered frame by frame as JK intends. Hmmm, is Jacob Kowalski actually J.K.’s surrogate through which she explores this new series? Unknown, I found the 2hours and 13 minute running time to speed by. What makes is pass so effortlessly?
First of all, the Yates’ film following J.K.’s script has a most excellent device. It’s an Easter Egg hunt, only across a truly magical New York City. At least, that’s the main thrust of the story that Newt, Kowalski & the Goldstein sisters are involved in. Meanwhile there is a whole darker subplot that they’re all headed on a collision course with – and it involves the Magical Government side of the U.S. – some unexplained killings of prominent folks in New York that threatens to unveil their secret magic society and risk a return to the ways of Salem.
Colin Farrell’s Percival Graves is the main man on the case at the behest of Zoe Kravitz’s Lestrange, who’s kinda running the big show. But really – I could easily go into extreme detail about this side of things. There’s a bit of magical fascism at play – but excuse me if I don’t want to wallow in the the darker quadrants of this latest tale of whimsy.
I’d rather geek out over the truly FANTASTIC BEASTS and the pocket dimension that Scamander keeps in his suitcase for them. If you think the Tardis is impressive, this is something else. In fact, when you see a vintage suitcase – you’ll always wander if it contains a wonderland. Suitcases have always been magical things. They go with you on every adventure you take outside of your own home – and for some reason the Scamander’s Suitcase is the truest wonder of the whole film. Spatial Customization would be such a wondrous thing. Just imagine having your own tropical island inside your home with Robinson Crusoe huts and habitats. It isn’t the lie of a holodeck, it’s magic – and the creatures and wonders that it hints at are truly spectacular.
The HARRY POTTER films ran into a rut of routine. Until the Deathly Hallows bust them out of school, before letting them trash it upon graduation. Heh. What a bitch of a final though, eh? All such structure is OBLIVIATED here. We’re not thrust into an obvious retread. This is a whole new set of adventures – and I imagine every SCARHEAD will shimmy into a seat for this enchanted telling.
Oh – and of course you’ll love Ron Perlman’s character. Though, I do kinda wish he’d been a juvenile HELLBOY, but this is technically before that character was born. Wonder if he’s responsible for that broken church from whence the big red one emerged? What I love most about Rowling’s stories and films? The wondrous dream fabric she gives us to play in.
Just imagine where Rowling & Yates will take us next!
Keep it cool,
Harry
