The One and Only weasley74

She’s all natural – no acting, no adjustments, just the pure truth. You get the chance to see her for what she is, you get to see her as you never have before. What she does is extraordinary – revealing herself for who she is, for what she’s been through – speaking of her depression, her biggest regret, of her mother’s death, speaking of the far from ideal relationship with the father she hasn’t spoken to in years. She’s doing it, and she’s doing it for real. She’s doing it for herself, as much as she’s doing it for the fans. It’s the truth and she wants the world to know it. She’s J.K Rowling – she’s just like everyone else, except that she has the brilliant mind and writing skills no one else possesses.

“Some people will loathe it, they will absolutely loathe it. But the thing is that’s how it should be, and for some people to love it others must loathe it.”

Seventeen years have passed since the widely known author who gave us the legendary Harry Potter series started writing about the wizard that surely changed more than one life. It’s been ten years since the rest of the world got the chance to join her on, at least a part of, this wonderful journey. Hardcore fans, as well as the rest of those interested, finally have the chance to really get the inside scoop of what it’s been like for this last year of one hell of an amazing ride. This well-awaited documentary shows us Jo Rowling as she finishes the last Potter novel – probably the most longed for novel in the world. To finally be able to see it, even if it’s not really real, even though it’s not life, it’s as close as the fans will ever get to the real thing. One will simply treasure this opportunity to enter the world of the woman who changed one’s own.

“I’m really happy with it, and I don’t always feel like that.”

This beautiful documentary is off to a great start, blowing the viewer away with amazing footage of the second Rowling writes the last chapter, the last word, of Deathly Hallows – finishing the series that changed her life, finishing the series of a world she’s lived in for seventeen years. She’s in a room at the Balmoral Hotel, with a laptop in front of her, at a desk covered with papers, notebooks, chewing gum wrappers and coffee cups – her desk is a complete mess. This is what it’s been like, and this is how it all ends. Just to be able to witness the moment that every diehard fan has been waiting for since 1997 is, to say the least, euphoria in its perfect sense.  The look on Jo’s face says it all, the feeling of completing something far beyond the extraordinary, and I’m sure that there are no words that could possibly describe what she felt at the moment when she realized that it’s all done. That she decided to film this moment is something that the fans will surely be more than grateful for, this is a point in history that will never be repeated, it’s not possible for something as amazing as this to happen again. One can do nothing less than to thank her for it all.

“Baking really reminds me of my mother, she made fantastic cakes, so that really makes me feel like I’m doing the proper mother thing – baking birthday cakes.”

Watching Rowling, or Jo if you will, as she spends her time in the kitchen, of her huge country house, baking a cake for her son’s upcoming birthday really makes you love her even more. Suddenly she is this very human woman who has changed the worlds of millions because of a talent she was blessed with. She’s normal, despite of all the fame, the glory, despite all the money and the brilliant mind behind the master-piece that is Harry Potter, she is normal. Jo is simply a mother of three, a loving wife, baking a chocolate cake for her son. You knew this before, but now it all seems somewhat more real to you. And while she’s baking, a completely normal cake, she’s talking as freely as humanly possible about the magical phenomenon, about the world she’s created during these seventeen years. In-between the seconds she’s everything but normal – Jo Rowling is brilliance at the peak of its definition.  

“In some ways it would have been a neat ending to kill him, a neater ending to kill him. But I felt that it would have been a betrayal, because I wanted my hero, and he is my hero, to do what I think is the most noble thing.”

When watching this we do find out more about the future lives of the Potters and the Weasleys, as well as Luna Lovegood. We do find out the names of husbands and wives, of the children that are the next generation. But what one really has to gain from watching the best footage from this year in her life, when it all sort of comes to an end, really isn’t  the knowledge that Ron and Hermione are in fact the Potter-children’s godparents, but what it’s been like for the person behind the success. But it’s always a bonus to find out what happened to the characters after that final chapter. It’s a treat really, now knowing why Victoire got her name, who George married, or why Charlie didn’t marry at all. If you’re obsessed, you’re obsessed, and all the tiny details, no matter how many there are, will just make you happier.

“For years now I have felt that if it all disappeared, and some days I feel like ‘Is this real?’, then this is where I would come back to, this would be my baseline.”

With the camera catching her every move Jo returns to the apartment she lived in when finishing Philosopher’s Stone – the first of seven Harry Potter novels. This almost beats watching the footage from the finishing of Deathly Hallows, watching the gentle mixture of feelings that sweep across her face as she enters this apartment that, to the naked eye doesn’t look any different from the rest, is, to use an overly used word; magical. No one knows it like she does, no one cold ever feel what she feels when entering the place that withholds this amazing significance to, not only this bound breaking author but also, an entire fan base. Only minutes after entering the flat Jo is on the verge of tears, her barrier soon breaks, and she’s trying not to sob as she tells us just how important this flat has been for her. As she enters her old bedroom she spots the four Harry Potter books that are placed in a bookshelf, the tears don’t even have a chance to stop. It is probably impossible to know how this place makes her feel, this is where it all started, this is where she, as Jo herself puts it, turned her life around. This is where she became herself. This apartment, this mere flat, is where it all started. Suddenly one feels a whole lot closer to the true world of Harry Potter.

“It’s the best I can do, it’s how I always planned it to end so that is going to have to be good enough. And occasionally, you think; ‘How can I ever live up to this?’”

J.K Rowling has, by deciding to make this documentary, given herself a chance to speak her mind, to tell us her side of the story. She speaks of the things that matter the most to her, of the journey she’s been through. Truthfully her reaction says it all, the tears she shed when returning to her old flat, the smile when finishing the final book. Sometimes words aren’t necessary, but when coming from her they are a blessing. Jo Rowling will surely be remembered as something so much more than a woman who did the best she could with the talent she had.