Familiarity Breeds Contentment

Yes, it’s time for another year in the life of Harry Potter, boy wizard extraordinaire. And for those devoted to J.K. Rowling’s best-selling tales — and/or their cinematic adaptations — "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth installment in the series, will do just fine.

Those who’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen a Harry Potter movie might wonder who all these singular people (and creatures) are.

But this is a situation where familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt.

That’s because the beloved characters — and the magical universe they occupy — are in good hands.

Not great hands, mind you, nor wildly imaginative ones. But safe — enough — for the time being, with enough adolescent angst and genuine peril to give anyone fleeting nightmares.

Except, of course, for Harry Potter himself (the quietly intense Daniel Radcliffe), whose nightmares continue even after he awakens from his fevered dreams.

And no, it’s not because of his continuing crush on a comely classmate (Katie Leung), although they do a bit of snogging (to use the British vernacular for kissing) between crises.

Instead, this "Harry Potter" finds the title character and his friends ranging beyond Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Not that Hogwarts doesn’t present its own challenges — particularly in the smilingly sinister personage of Dolores Umbridge (a stunningly hiss-worthy Imelda Staunton), a new Hogwarts instructor who’s a walking repression machine.

Kitted out in a series of pink knits Queen Elizabeth herself might covet, the prim Umbridge cracks down on student activities, sends rival faculty members packing and alters the curriculum, eliminating classes in which the young conjurers learn to defend themselves against the dark arts of He Who Must Not Be Named — alias the dreaded Lord Voldemort, whom Harry memorably encountered in the previous installment of our tale, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

No one at the Ministry of Magic believe that Harry’s nemesis has returned. (We know better, naturally.)

Behind the scenes, however, members of the secret Order of the Phoenix are working to counter the ominous developments — notably Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black (the noble Gary Oldman), the other title character in 2004’s "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." (That remains my favorite of the series so far.)

Yet, even with the support of such stalwarts as Sirius and Hogwarts’ formidable headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (the marvelously crafty Michael Gambon), Harry realizes he’s essentially on his own.

Except, of course, for more than a little help from his friends Hermione Granger (brainy, bossy Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, still scoring deadpan one-liners), aided by the otherweirdly Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) and other true believers.

Director David Yates (a British TV veteran whose credits include HBO’s "The Girl in the Café") and screenwriter Michael Goldenberg (a playwright who also scripted 2003’s "Peter Pan" adaptation and 1997’s "Contact") have a lot of territory to cover. Rowling’s book ran almost 900 pages, after all.

To their credit, however, they take their time (sometimes a bit too much time) exploring the story’s interlocking elements, from Umbridge’s dictatorial impulses to Harry’s determination to follow his instincts, no matter how much trouble they cause.

But the constant pressure to get on with it — and get to the climactic clash of good and evil, with Harry and his allies challenging Lucius Malfoy (the malevolent Jason Isaacs) and the villainous, venomous Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) — leaves little room for flights of fancy.

Which, I suppose, is as it should be. Harry’s growing up and he’s got serious — deadly serious — business to attend to. (Just how deadly, we’ll find out next week when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final book in Rowling’s series, arrives.)

In the meantime, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" reminds us that there’s something even more terrifying than battling evil: coming of age. And, inevitably, coming to terms with your destiny.