When Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) was an infant, he may have survived the curse of death. Since he came to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of 11, he may have defeated a dragon, a troll, and even the Dark Lord Voldemort himself (if only temporarily). But as Harry and his fellow classmates embark upon their sixth year at Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the reality they face is one in which the battle between darkness and light rages on.

If you have seen any of the trailers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, you would be rightly inclined to think that this newest installment is darker than all the movies that have come before it. The thing is: it really isn't. Add maybe forty five minutes onto the scenes in the trailer, and of the two hours and thirty three minutes that make up the movie, that is about all that actually makes you shiver in fear for your favorite characters. For much of the film's first half, most prominent are actually cute and comic stories of teenage love and youthful romance. Mixed in are a few brushes with darkness and the series' first looks back at Voldemort when he was just a boy (then known as Tom Riddle). But let's just say, with the always suspicious Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) channeling a much better "child of darkness" than the young Riddle, the threat of Voldemort just doesn't feel the same without his pale "reincarnation" staring right at you.

That said, a threat still hangs over Hogwarts and Harry, and in the end, it arrives with devastating revelations and consequences. Yes, the jump from the film's fairly light first half is one you feel, the only confrontations that truly get your heart racing rush by far too fast, and its defining final event is given only a fraction of the attention it deserves. But as yet another year at Hogwarts comes to a close, what students, teachers, and audiences are left with is a reality in which what has already been set in motion and what may still be yet to come is far beyond what any had imagined.

While almost every installment of the Harry Potter series deals with truths that are not yet known and knowledge that has yet to be revealed to everyone, more than any of the other films so far, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince deals with the concept of living life inside a greater plan and according to a greater purpose than we can grasp on our own. For much of the film, the keeper of this greater perspective is Professor Dumbledore. And as Harry follows Dumbledore without question and obeys his instructions even though their purpose is not always clear, what their relationship reveals to us is one of faith, trust, and a recognition an understanding and wisdom beyond our own.



As Harry tells his friends as he attempts to fulfill one of Dumbledore's request early on in the film, "It must be important. If it wasn't important, he wouldn't ask." Why is it important? Harry doesn't know. But still, he obliges. As the film continues on, however, Dumbledore's requests of Harry move from merely challenging to almost counterintuitive. As Dumbledore tells Harry, "Once again, I must ask too much of you." In one scene, that too much involves forcing Dumbledore to complete a task even though he cries out in pain and agony to stop. In another, it involves Harry not stepping in as Dumbledore faces perhaps the most devastating attack mounted since Voldemort's return. But as Dumbledore tells Harry, "Whatever happens&ellips; trust me." And so, even as every fiber of Harry's being may tell him to do otherwise, he obeys.

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