Much has been made in some quarters (here, here) regarding a “nude” scene in the newest Harry Potter offering. In fact, one sees a couple of characters kissing passionately with bare shoulders and mist swirling around them. The implication is of nudity, but the actual appearance is just of bare shoulders and smooching.
Some people feel this is inappropriate to a children’s movie, to which I say, The movie is rated PG-13, and the P.G. really stands for something. And while the books may be for kids (older kids), a lot of things are more disturbing in translation to the screen. (I can imagine letting children read the Hunger Games well before I’d be comfortable letting them see everything that happened there on screen. Likewise with the Bible; I’ll never be old enough to see all of that stuff on screen.)
BUT the scene still didn’t fit, and the reason is that Harry and his friends have always been incredibly – well – virginal. The big smoldering sexual tension in the Harry Potter books has always been about kissing, even as the characters pass through puberty. It apparently has never even occurred to Harry and his friends – laudable and amazingly – to use the invisibility cloak for some mischief. These kids are sexy-free. So for Ron’s vision of horror to suddenly be of So Much More is just a little bit out of place.
That’s my take.
I thought the movie was excellent overall.
Well observed but haven’t read it myself, not the book seven.