Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
“It’s okay…it’s okay…it’s okay. It’s just like waking up, right?” – Jacob Kowalski, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years…you made the right choice, well done. But seriously, unless you’ve been avoiding every form of social media and newspaper and basically every way of sharing news that exists, you’ll be aware of the global phenomena that is Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Now, I could wax poetic about how incredible the film is until the cows come home, but this is a book blog, not a blog for the inner workings of my mind. Luckily for you.
After the wild success of releasing the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, those behind the global blockbuster released the screenplay for the film. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint. Of course it doesn't, it’s literally the film script.
Whilst this doesn’t technically count as a novel, and if you’ve seen the film you know exactly what’s going to happen, there’s just something so exciting about having the screenplay in your possession. This is what the cast and crew looked at, knowing that gives us a whole new look into the world of this film. The descriptions, especially of the characters creates a deeper understanding of what the actors had to work with and how they brought the characters to life.
Newt, for example, is described as having a ‘Keatonesque’ quality about him, being wiry and a bit scruffy. The image, even through the screenplay is one of someone that doesn’t quite fit in, moving in the world around him in a very different way.
The thing about a film, especially if it’s one you’ve never seen at the cinema, is that there is so much going on that you can miss stuff. This is especially true in Fantastic Beasts where magic is an integral part of the story and it’s easy to miss out on glances characters give each other, that are potentially important, because an apple pie is literally being created out of nothing in the top right corner of the screen. I found especially in regards to relationships like Tina and Newt’s, whose relationship only touches on obviously romance at the very end of the film, the descriptions in the screenplay were really useful for watching the steady evolution of their friendship.
My advice? Watch the film, read the screenplay, then watch the film again. It doesn’t change the film or anything, but it gives you an extra layer of understanding, which can only add to your enjoyment. And why not watch it again after that? And again? And hey, what about a fifth time? Just to really get neck deep into this latest instalment from the Queen of Everything, J.K. Rowling.
Whatever you do, just don’t get my mother started on the many charms of Colin Farrell, who plays Graves. Woman can talk for DAYS.