Magic Beyond Words - The Magical Story of J.K. Rowling - DVD

Film: She is one of the richest women in England and one of the most successful authors of the 21st century. Century: Joanne K. Rowling has managed with her books around the wizard student Harry Potter, that not only in her books, but also in her real life a real fairy tale has come true. The rise from single, welfare-receiving mother to multiple millionaire is truly magical stuff, now retold in the American TV biopic Magic Beyond Words.

The film shows that even little Joanne was enthralled by magical worlds and dreamed from childhood of one day becoming a writer. But reality has always put obstacles in her way: the illness and the far too early death of her mother, a not exactly high-paying job as a teacher in Portugal, a less than happy marriage or even the hardships of raising her daughter alone after their failure, keep Joanne (Poppy Montgomery, Without a Trace) from putting her stories about a school for wizards and witches down on paper again and again. When she finally finishes writing the first volume after years, the welfare recipient faces the next big hurdle: she has to find a publisher who will also publish her visions. And that turns out to be extremely difficult...

With an initial print run of just 500 copies, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone launched in 1997. Fifteen years later, both as a book and in the cinema, the student wizard is one of the most successful franchises of the present day; a truly fascinating success story has been written. The realization in this TV-movie is sometimes quite nice, which is also due to the well-chosen leading actress Poppy Montgomery, but remains overall very superficial and clichéd. The fact that Joanne is told again and again that she should do what she really loves, that she should follow her heart, comes across as overdone in the long run. And the not exactly subtly presented alleged inspirations, such as the glasses she had to wear as a girl, also seem less than believable and very contrived.

Due to the fact that the entire story is told in a short 90 minutes, the dramaturgy also remains very superficial. The failure of Rowling's marriage in Portugal, for example, leaves the viewer relatively cold, as the budding relationship between her and her future husband has already been fast-tracked. If you don't mind such a simple production and enjoy the small but very clear allusions to Harry Potter and the world of Hogwarts, you can definitely enjoy this little TV movie. However, if you are hoping for a more in-depth examination of the fascinating success story of J.K. Rowling, you should rather go back to her books and their film adaptations.

Picture + Sound: The technical realization of the TV film is on average TV level. Here and there the picture seems a bit soft-drawn, which admittedly has a not necessarily positive impact on the overall sharpness. Colours are well balanced, but there are also small points deducted here and there in terms of contrast. The sound available as a stereo mix focuses mainly on the reproduction of dialogue, which sound in the original English version somewhat more harmoniously integrated into the action, as on the German soundtrack.

Extras: Bonus material there is none to find on the DVD.

Conclusion: Magic Beyond Words - The magical story of J.K. Rowling is a typical TV movie, which tells its not uninteresting story arg superficial and cliché. In only 90 minutes the story of Rowling's life up to the publication of the first Harry Potter volume is fast-tracked, so that neither the story nor its characters can really develop. This is quite nice to watch at times, but the film hardly does justice to the author's actual success story. The DVD is technically on a decent TV level, only the lack of any extras really makes a negative impression. For fans of the author due to the well-chosen leading actress despite its weaknesses well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp