"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

Although the previous Harry Potter movies have included some fine performances (from the likes of Harris and Kenneth Branagh, as well as from Coltrane, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith, all three of whom reappear here), "The Prisoner of Azkaban" is the first Harry Potter movie that's really a showcase for actors. Radcliffe, Watson and Grint were appealing enough in the earlier movies, but their performances were also a bit stiff and perfunctory. Slightly older and more seasoned now -- in addition to the fact that they're working with an intuitive director who clearly knows how to guide young actors -- they've learned how to fully relax into their characters. They never mug; their faces show gradations of expression we haven't seen before. Emma Thompson is hilarious in her small role as the dotty, aged-hippie divination teacher professor Trelawny. And Oldman's Sirius Black and Thewlis' Lupin bring vast reserves of emotional gravity, balanced by the right proportions of good humor, to the picture.

Even before any critics or viewers had seen "The Prisoner of Azkaban," we all heard rumors of its "darker mood." "The Prisoner of Azkaban" is darker than any of the previous Harry Potters, in keeping with the tenor of Rowling's books. But the deeper undertones of "The Prisoner of Azkaban" feel organic -- they're not just pasted-on gloomy colors. Oldman and Thewlis, in particular, embody the picture's mood: There's shadowy complexity, as well as luminescence, in their hearts.

That's true of the overall look of the movie, as well, which I'm beginning to think is one of the most masterfully conceived and shot fantasy films of all time, precisely because it looks so un-fantastical. For one thing, despite the fact that "The Prisoner of Azkaban" shares many of the same sets as the earlier Harry Potter movies and, like them, was shot in the United Kingdom, it's the first Harry Potter movie that looks distinctively English. Columbus gave us lots of garish tones and busy bustle. But Cuarón -- who was born in Mexico City -- is highly attuned to that most quintessentially English characteristic: understatement.

Seresin clearly shares his sensibility. The colors of "The Prisoner of Azkaban" are muted and intense. Parts of the picture were shot in Scotland, and those sections set the movie's palette of smoky grays, misty browns and brilliant greens. These are the types of colors that don't reach out to us -- we need to come to them. And that's how "The Prisoner of Azkaban" works its most powerful magic: The picture is naturalistic without being aggressively pastoral. Set against such arrestingly realistic grays and browns, the sight of a hippogriff majestically flapping its giant, Pegasus-like wings looks more real than, say, a jet streaming across the sky.

Most movie audiences are familiar with Cuarón's last picture, the joyous and deservedly praised "Y Tu Mamá También." That movie's success may have led some viewers to seek out Cuarón's first American feature, the 1995 "A Little Princess," an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Victorian children's story and, for my money, one of the most lush and emotionally resonant children's films ever made. Cuarón's 1998 adaptation of "Great Expectations" has far fewer defenders, but I adore it, and, in the context of this new Harry Potter movie, I urge people who may have dismissed it to have another look. If nothing else, the verdant romanticism of "Great Expectations" points the way to "The Prisoner of Azkaban."

Cuarón has the eye of a landscape painter and the heart of a humanist. The killer twist is that he's also an extraordinarily gifted storyteller. Rowling is reportedly a big fan of "A Little Princess." It's fitting that Cuarón is the filmmaker to at last give her writing the on-screen life it deserves. I often think of great movie adaptations not just as extracurricular versions of the books they represent but as vital accessories to those books -- compact but substantive ghosts that sit on the shelves among and between the pages, huddled up close, guardians of their elusive yet sturdy spirits. As an adaptation, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is all you could wish for. It has earned its place on the bookshelf.

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