Dudley Dursley has certainly grown all the way up!

I recently watched two very good movies, The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) and The Pale Blue Eye. Besides being period pieces adaptations, they both had a different link. Harry Melling, best know as Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter movies. It was a bit odd to see him as he looks quite different now (understandably as he's grown up from the young man from the Harry Potter films). He still looked familiar to me though so it was easy to look him up find out who he was.

To move on to the movies now. Let's start with The Tragedy of Macbeth. This is an adaptation from Joel Coen, one half of the Coen Brothers, who worked alone for the first time to make this Shakespeare adaptation. Denzel Washington is the titular character and Frances McDormand is the infamous Lady Macbeth. I heard this was a pretty accurate portrayal of Macbeth's fighting prowess and I will say I believe it followed through with that very well. It's a good adaptation of the play and you really feel sympathy and then disgust and hatred for Macbeth in it. All the roles are well cast and the actors do wonderful jobs. It is thoroughly atmospheric and increasingly claustrophobic. While not exactly enjoyable, such as Macbeth is, this is a very good adaptation and makes me want to see more Denzel in Shakespeare roles. Gotta rewatch Much Ado About Nothing now...

8/10

The second Harry Melling film I watch, had him in a significantly larger role. The Pale Blue Eye is a fictional story about a young Poe who was a cadet at  West Point (truthfully!!) getting caught up in the seemingly ritualistic murders of some of his fellow cadets. Harry plays Poe very well and Christian Bale is Augustus Landor, the retired copper who's brought in to solve the crimes. It's a good mystery and the acting is top notch. This is really a good gothic thriller and worth a watch, if not really one that I will really look at watching again. I'm always game for anything Poe and they do try to show where some of the experiences in the movie could have inspired Poe's creativity and works. Fictionally of course as this is nowhere near a true story.

7/10

I did like Harry Melling in both of these films and will not be surprised to see him in more films later or, or be pleased with his performance, he certainly is so much more than that brat from the HP films.