Jo being cute.
Magic Beyond Words: The J. K. Rowling Story is a Made For TV Biopic dedicated to, surprisingly enough, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, played here by Poppy Montgomery of Without a Trace fame. It originally aired on the Lifetime Network on July 18, 2011.
The film follows Rowling from her childhood in The '70s to the premiere of the first movie in 2001. It sticks fairly close to the known facts about her life, though with some dramatic embellishments here and there.
The movie received mixed reviews. See a trailer here
. Watch the whole movie here.
Examples:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: This is probably the most notable factual error in the film. While Rowling is blonde today, she was a redhead during the time period much of the film takes place. Nevertheless, the film portrays her as blonde throughout. Whether the filmmakers didn't know better or thought she wouldn't be recognizable enough otherwise is unclear.
- Call-Forward: Okay, we get it. She's going to write Harry Potter. One particularly unsubtle and rather nonsensical one comes from Rowling calling her boyfriend a "weasley guy," referencing the Weasley family in the Harry Potter series. However, the Weasleys are some of the most positive characters in the book, making it a strange insult.
- Continuity Cameo: Rowling's second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, appears briefly when she attends the premiere of the first film and is only identified as her fiancé. In Real Life, they wed later that year and have been married ever since.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Many of these. The one which seems the most out there (Rowling instantly gets the entire idea for Harry Potter while on a stalled train) is the one which really happened.
- How We Got Here: The film is bookended by scenes of Rowling at the premiere of the first movie.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Ah, the Phrase: The Person's Name Story title format Lifetime seems to love so much.
- It Will Never Catch On: Lots of this ("Nobody makes any money writing children's books."), much of which actually happened.
