katherine waterston fantastic beasts and where to find them newt

You’re pretty much a non-descript cypher, far from the magic man your Newt is supposed to be. He even has the same floppy hair Grant wore in “Three Weddings and a Funeral.” But, sir, you’re no Hugh Grant. Then there’s Redmayne, amazing as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” and annoying in the overrated “The Danish Girl.” Here, he’s more of the latter, doing something bordering on a drippy Hugh Grant impersonation, sans the charisma. He’s steady and competent, but his movie lacks energy, not to mention a sense of purpose beyond bleeding the pockets of parents looking for something to occupy their little muggles. Putting wings on a snake? Really? That’s the best you can do? I’ve also never been a big fan of David Yates, who directed the last four “Potter” movies and is back in the saddle here. It’s boring, and - except for Fogler and Sudol - utterly lacking in joy and warmth.Įven the strange creatures that spring from Newt’s suitcase lack imagination. Her characters are flat and underdeveloped, her plotting scattershot and her action scenes tired and derivative.

Unlike Steve Kloves, who penned seven of the eight “Potter” scripts, Rowling has no grasp of screenwriting.

But that’s where the relevancy of her script, written in 2013, begins and ends. It fits nicely into what we see happening in the streets of New York, circa 1926. She’s also the sister of Porpentina, who has no use for muggles, particularly with a witch hunt going on outside that’s billed as “the second Salem.” Kudos to Rowling for foreseeing the us-against-them paranoia currently sweeping the U.S. They’re also the lone source of pathos because their budding romance can never be by virtue of Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski being a muggle, or “no-maj” (short for no magic) as they say in the States, and Sudol’s Queenie being of the hocus-pocus persuasion. Fogler, an adorable, roly-poly wannabe doughnut-maker, and Sudol, a mind-reading vamp channeling Clara Bow and Mae West, are a never-ending wellspring of delight with their forbidden flirtations. The lone bright spots are Dan Fogler and singer-songwriter Alison Sudol as the “comic-relief sidekicks” of Redmayne’s “magizoologist” Newt Scamander and Waterston’s peace-officer Porpentina Goldstein.

Katherine waterston fantastic beasts and where to find them newt