Stardust wound up as my favorite film of the year.
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In a year of disappointing sequels and box-office bombs, "Stardust" was a breath of fresh air. It rather sneaked up on me, though, without a lot of fanfare, TV promos, or full-page ads. It won me over the old-fashioned way, by simply being fun; and despite some healthy competition from "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Ratatouille," "Hairspray" and others, "Stardust" wound up as my favorite film of the year.
If you're a fan of the whimsical, often satiric fantasy books by author Neil Gaiman ("Coraline," "Neverwhere," "InterWorld," and the hugely comical "Good Omens," among others), you may enjoy "Stardust," too, the movie adaptation from director Matthew Vaughn ("Layer Cake").
Think of "The Princess Bride" on an even bigger scale or "Shrek" in live action or Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits" or "The Brothers Grimm" with similar laughs. "Stardust" is well crafted, well constructed (albeit a little overambitious), well produced, and well acted. It's a traditional yet gently amusing quest yarn, spectacular, adventurous, and romantic. While the filmmakers handle some of the characters and action tongue in cheek, they treat just as much or more of the film as a straight fairy tale, so you get to have your cake and eat it, too. Yes, it is also sprawling, biting off perhaps a bit more of its cake than it can chew, but the result is almost always engaging. I began smiling a few minutes into the picture, and I never stopped smiling until the end of the closing credits. One could hardly ask for more.
The story takes place in two distinct worlds, one real and the other magical. They exist side by side in mid nineteenth-century England, separated by only a rock wall. Indeed, the name of the real town nearest the wall is, fittingly enough, Wall; and on the other side is the enchanted kingdom of Stormhold. People from the two worlds are not supposed to intermingle. The things that go on in these separate universes are a bit complex, with any number of colorful characters running through a plot that goes in several directions, but I'll try to be brief.
Young Dunstan Thorn (Ben Barnes), a normal human, sneaks across the wall one night, visits a young woman there (Kate Magowan), and returns home. Nine months later, the guard at the wall delivers a baby to Dunstan's doorstep, the fruit of the night's fling with the beguiling lady. Eighteen years pass, and the baby grows up to become a young man, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), madly in love with a local, and quite superficial, lass, Victoria (Sienna Miller). One night, he and Victoria see a shooting star fall to Earth, and he promises the girl he'll prove his love by retrieving the star just for her.
However, the star is no mere heavenly body that has fallen to Earth; it's a celestial person, a beautiful young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes), and near her is a necklace and a crystal. But it's not just Tristran who's out to find her. At the same time, the old King of Stormhold (Peter O'Toole) is dying, and he has promised his kingdom to the one of this seven sons who can retrieve the stone. Well, the sons are so evil and conniving that three of them have already died at the hands of their siblings, and the others are soon to follow, leaving only one son, Septimus (Mark Strong), to recover the crystal and declare himself King. The other brothers hang around as a kind of comic, ghostly chorus.
But, wait, that's not all. There are also three wicked witches itching to get their hands on the celestial girl's heart, because they're all hundreds of years old and look it. The living heart of the girl Yvaine, cut warm from her body, will make them young again; and the most cunning sister, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), goes to claim it.
So, that's it then. You've got the beautiful young star child, Yvaine; the handsome young hero, Tristran; the nefarious brother, Septimus; and the even more nefarious witch, Lamia. And they're all after either the girl or the crystal or both.
Given the number of high-profile actors in the film, you'd think it would have to be good, but we've all learned better on that count from too many previous failures. Fortunately, this time it works. The actors are not thrown around willy-nilly, simply for people to see; their characters, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, are memorable, well characterized, and genuinely significant to the story. The two leads are most appealing, Charlie Cox and Claire Danes a delight, everything you could want in youthful innocence, spirit, naïveté, and attractiveness. As the head witch, Michelle Pfeiffer is ideal, the actress getting better and better as she gets older. The same year found her in "Hairspray," where she was deliciously vile, and here she's just as good, her natural beauty and dark wit both coming into play. As the old, dying King, Peter O'Toole has a small part, but he plays it with a sly wink. Likewise, as the surviving brother and heir to the throne, Mark Strong makes an appropriate cad.
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