Or, to give it its full title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

You might ask what a forty something year old man like me is doing talking about this film.  It’s a kids’ film after all.  Well, you know, I do like to consider myself as a well read person, having read such titles as Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

Plus I have read tons of Dickens; just enough Austen; plenty Pat Barker and Schindler’s Ark.  I’ve even managed to get through the interminable Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, not to mention An Instance of the Fingerpost.

So why do I love this film so much? Well, I was put on to the original Harry Potter novel by a good friend – a successful lawyer doncha know (so his tastes in literature are not to be sniffed at – fact).  Upon reading that I was hooked – lucky for me, the second installment was only weeks away.

Of course I got swept up in the hype surrounding the Potter series and of course there are inconsistencies in the books.  But these points overlook the fact that at its heart, Harry Potter is a great story.  Like many other sagas, you just want to keep reading and the sense of loss when you’ve finished is palpable.

That’s why I do so much enjoy watching HPXII(i).  You know it’s near the end of the story; you know what’s going to happen.  This one just keeps things bubbling away, the excitement still beating in your breast.  The anti-climactic sense of loss when it’s finished delayed who knows, for ever…