---
title: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
year: 2001
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone"
fi1m_score: 68
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 16
published: "2026-09-19T16:15:32.858012+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-19T16:15:33.210742+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

Directed by Chris Columbus · 2h 32m · MPA PG · Adventure, Fantasy

**Fi1m score: 68** · Critics 66 from 16 reviews

*In a sentence:* The school is the star, the children are trying hard, and John Williams will not stop

> Chris Columbus has put J.K. Rowling’s book on screen in order, with nothing broken and nothing risked. Stuart Craig’s Hogwarts is worth the ticket on its own; the film around it is faithful, handsome and forty minutes too long.

## Synopsis

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is an orphan of ten who sleeps in a cupboard at 4 Privet Drive, bullied by his Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths) and Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw). Letters begin to arrive, and his uncle burns them. On his eleventh birthday a giant, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), breaks down the door and tells him he is a wizard, that his parents were too, and that a place is waiting at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid takes him shopping in Diagon Alley, where Mr Ollivander (John Hurt) sells him a wand, then puts him on a scarlet train from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. On board he meets Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and snubs a sneering Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton).

## Review

Chris Columbus was handed a book its readers knew by heart and asked not to break it. He has not broken it. Working from Steve Kloves’s screenplay, he puts J.K. Rowling’s novel on the screen chapter by chapter, at 152 minutes, and the result is exactly what the title promises: an adaptation. It is well built, well cast and cautious to the bone. Children will love it. Adults will find plenty to look at and, somewhere past the ninety-minute mark, will look at their watches.

The opening hour is the best of it, because it is the hour with a shape. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) lives in a cupboard at Privet Drive with an uncle (Richard Griffiths) who goes purple and an aunt (Fiona Shaw) who goes thin-lipped, and the pair of them play the Dursleys as a short, sharp cartoon of suburban meanness. Then Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) arrives with a squashed birthday cake, and the film opens like a door. Diagon Alley leans in over the street, John Hurt’s Mr Ollivander stands among his wand boxes as if he has not left the shop in a century, and a train pulls out from a platform that should not exist. Every scene has a new thing in it, and the new things are good.

Stuart Craig’s production design is the reason to see this in the largest form you can. His Hogwarts is stone, dark wood and candle grease, a real school that has been left to a thousand years of eccentrics, and John Seale lights it with lamps and fires so the light is always the colour of something burning. We will own the moment: when the first-years walk into the Great Hall under its floating candles and painted sky, we felt a lift we had not budgeted for, and it came from the set, not from the story. Judianna Makovsky’s robes are heavy black wool that moves like school uniform, which is what it is, and Hagrid’s moleskin coat looks as though small animals live in it.

The grown-ups are cast with care and used sparingly. Coltrane is warm, huge and slightly out of his depth, which is right for Hagrid. Maggie Smith’s McGonagall can silence a corridor with one look over her spectacles. Richard Harris plays Dumbledore as a man who has forgotten more than the rest of the staff will ever know and does not mind. And Alan Rickman, as Snape, gets perhaps six minutes of screen time and steals every one of them, drawing out his vowels as if each were a pupil he was disappointed in. The children are children. Radcliffe is watchful and open and not yet an actor; Rupert Grint has a rubber face and knows it; Emma Watson pronounces every syllable as though it were being marked. Tom Felton sneers competently.

What goes wrong is measure. John Williams has written a lovely score, and the tinkling melody that opens the film is one of his best, but it is under everything, swelling at every doorway and every reveal, telling us to feel wonder while Craig’s sets were already doing the job. Richard Francis-Bruce cuts the Quidditch match into a blur of broomsticks and balls, fast and loud and hard to follow, and the film’s one set piece of pure action turns out to be its least legible sequence. And there is simply too much. Columbus keeps every episode because the readers would miss it, and so the second half becomes a list: a lesson, a corridor, a lesson, a feast. Around the two-hour mark we were restless, and then faintly cross at being restless in a room this well furnished.

Columbus made [*Home Alone*](https://film.one/film/home-alone) (1990), and he directs children the same way here, for broad reactions and quick laughs, which serves the Dursleys and lets down the quieter scenes. He is a safe pair of hands, and safe is what the producers wanted. Set against the children’s fantasies that frightened us as children, Nicolas Roeg’s *The Witches* (1990) chief among them, this has almost no edge at all; the one moment near the end that does unsettle, and we will not describe it, is over in a minute.

Watch it at home, with a child if you have one to hand and with the volume a notch lower than you would choose. The sets survive the small screen, the score becomes bearable, and the length matters less when you can pause for tea. It carries a PG and it earns it, just.

*Fi1m score 68, published 19 September 2026.*

### Reviews we read (16)

- **The Independent** (90/100, inferred): The film is a remarkably solid piece of work with rich production values and headlong adventure, balancing flighty magic with grounded angst in an old-fashioned story of courage and belonging. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/harry-potter-and-the-philosopher-s-stone-9175053.html)
- **Radio Times**, Andrew Collins (4/5): This CGI-packed fantasy adventure is more than just a big-budget movie adaptation – it’s a cultural phenomenon. Daniel Radcliffe makes a likeable Harry and the cast breathes life into the characters, though there is a lack of emotional core and the film is too long. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ormjku/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone/)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (4/5): The film is a richly accomplished entertainment spectacular and the quickest, zappiest two and a half hours in the cinema. It is tightly respectful of the book with staggering special effects and strong performances from the young cast and supporting British actors. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/nov/16/harrypotter.jkrowling)
- **The Telegraph**, John Hiscock (80/100, inferred): The film succeeds triumphantly in meeting the challenge of adapting the book faithfully. It is a visual and emotional treat with impressive effects, though some book details are omitted. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4726359/Magic-is-the-only-word-for-it.html)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (4/5): The 20th-anniversary rerelease holds up remarkably well with a gorgeous fairytale innocence and ingenuous acting from the young cast. The Quidditch scenes feel synthetic but the final confrontation remains disturbing. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-2001-review-emma-watson-rupert-grint-daniel-radcliffe-j7svbdtpf)
- **Time Out**, BC (80/100, inferred): The boarding school stuff is terrific and the lessons quick and funny; Quidditch is as fast as Top Gun but then becomes incomprehensible. A long, engrossing feast for children that kids will love. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-2001)
- **Empire**, Alan Morrison (70/100, inferred): A faithful adaptation that thrives on recognition of the book's elements, with excellent set pieces like the Quidditch match and near-perfect casting, though the long runtime may test some young viewers. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/harry-potter-philosopher-stone-review/)
- **Total Film** (70/100, inferred): The film gets many details and effects right in a cozy, faithful adaptation with strong adult casting, but the child actors are uneven; it is a rewarding and charming franchise starter. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-review/)
- **Screen Daily** (60/100, inferred): Chris Columbus's rendition is a well-made, likeable picture that will please the books' fans, but from a strictly artistic viewpoint it is not particularly exciting and only intermittently succeeds in echoing the magic of seminal children's fantasies. The excessive running time may prove trying. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone/407464.article)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (55/100, inferred): Columbus sticks closely to the source material and benefits from a strong cast, but overdoes the wonder with excessive effects and score while the long runtime drags the episodic story. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-1798192818)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (50/100, inferred): The film is a remarkably faithful but risk-averse adaptation that delivers what fans want yet falls short of cinematic poetry or passion. The critic praises the visual recreation of Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, the young cast, and Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, while lamenting the lack of bold choices. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-archives-harry-potter-sorcerers-stone-review-20170626-story.html)
- **Sight and Sound** (50/100, inferred): The film is conscious of its vast market and keeps things bland, with only Alan Rickman standing out. It will captivate younger children but is oddly anticlimactic overall, with cuteness but no epic sweep or emotional edge. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/features/ultimatefilm/chart/details.php?ranking=11)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (50/100, inferred): The film faithfully adapts the book with strong visuals that establish the wizarding world and credible young leads, but feels overly cautious and lacks creative spark beyond its production design. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/harry-potter-sorcerers-stone-2001-review-946999/)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (50/100, inferred): The film is an enjoyable but unadventurous adaptation that does its job without surprising or moving viewers deeply. The critic singles out the strong child performances, especially Emma Watson as Hermione, and Alan Rickman's Snape for praise, while noting it lacks the book's emotional resonance. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/11/19/nobody-beats-the-wizard)
- **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (35/100, inferred): Columbus trivializes the emotional core and delivers a heartless greatest-hits package of set pieces undermined by a relentless score and bland direction, though some details and sequences show promise. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Steven Neish (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film overly faithful to the book with pedestrian direction that sacrifices some character development and momentum for completeness. They single out the enchanting introduction to the magical world, impressive CGI, perfect casting and John Williams score as making it accomplished family entertainment that lays solid foundations for the series. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/hogwarts-revisited-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone/)

## Details

- **Director:** Chris Columbus
- **Director:** Chris Columbus
- **Screenplay:** Steve Kloves
- **Novel:** J.K. Rowling
- **Cinematography:** John Seale
- **Editor:** Richard Francis-Bruce
- **Music:** John Williams
- **Production design:** Stuart Craig
- **Costume design:** Judianna Makovsky
- **Producer:** David Heyman
- **Cast:** Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter; Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley; Emma Watson as Hermione Granger; Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore; Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy; Alan Rickman as Severus Snape; Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid; Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall
- **Runtime:** 2h 32m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG
- **Release (the US):** 16 November 2001
- **Genres:** Adventure, Fantasy
- **Budget:** $125 million
- **Box office:** $1.03 billion
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91Km49W9qI

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd
- Peacock: streaming, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, uhd
- Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-19.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2002: Best Costume Design (nominated); Best Original Score (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated)
- BAFTA Film Awards 2002: BAFTA's Children & Young People Award - Feature Film (nominated); Best Actor in a Supporting Role (nominated); Best British Film (nominated); Best Makeup and Hair (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Special Visual Effects (nominated)
- Hugo Awards 2002: Best Dramatic Presentation (nominated)
- Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film 2002: Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film (nominated)
- Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie 2002: Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie (nominated)
- Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture 2002: Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature 2002: Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Art Direction and Production Design 2002: Satellite Award for Best Art Direction and Production Design (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Editing 2002: Satellite Award for Best Editing (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects 2002: Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects (nominated)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Composer 2001: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Composer (nominated)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Family Film 2001: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Family Film (won)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer 2001: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (nominated)
- Saturn Awards 2001: Best Costume (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Witches* (1990): Roeg’s Roald Dahl film has the menace this one politely leaves out
- *Spirited Away* (2001), Fi1m 92: A child in a strange school of spirits, drawn with far stranger imagination — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/spirited-away.md)
- *Matilda* (1996): Another gifted child, ghastly guardians and a headmistress worth fearing
- *A Little Princess* (1995): Cuarón’s boarding-school orphan story, lit like a storybook and properly moving
- *Labyrinth* (1986), Fi1m 74: Henson’s puppets do with foam and latex what this does with computers — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/labyrinth.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone