Stardust

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Fantasy/Action/Adventure

A Babylonian Candle that carries it‘s owner to any chosen destination. A dirigible outfitted sailing ship that sails the high skies fishing for lightning. A Greek chorus of dead prince siblings who cannot leave the earth until a king is named. A magic unicorn. An evil prince who’ll stop at nothing to find the missing key to his kingdom. Three malevolent witches whose single desire is to capture the star that will give them eternal life. A star that falls from the night sky to becomes a beautiful girl, and a boy in search of the one thing that will make his life complete; true love. This is Stardust.

While some will go to this film with Princess Bride in mind, Stardust has a different tone and style than Bride, being consciously written in the tradition of a pre-Tolken English fantasy. It is concerned with the adventures of Tristan, a young man from the village of Wall, a place named for an old rock wall to its east where there is a small opening; a portal to the magical world of Faerie. Tristan promises the girl he loves that he will cross the wall into forbidden Faerie and retrieve a fallen star if she will wait one week before giving her hand in marriage to another. Thus begins Tristan’s journey.

Conceived in 1997 by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, Stardust was originally a graphic novel that was then written, graphed and printed in book form. Matthew Vaughn, director of Layer Cake, picked up Stardust and was able to gather a team of actors that lend the piece credible performances. Michelle Pfeiffer as the leading wicked witch and Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare can’t help but steal the show. Claire Danes as the fallen star and Charlie Cox as Tristan are somewhat bland in comparison to the aforementioned but they mange to develop a strong chemistry that makes their roles engaging.

An old fashion hero’s journey, Stardust doesn’t dress itself up with a political correct heroine, or try to balance out evil as poor parenting, or make excuses for human behavior. It is the tale of a boy who becomes a man by undertaking a quest and it is a fine attempt to reengage a world we have lost. This is a story about magic; from the moment it opens until the curtain falls and is the kind of movie you will want to see in the dark with a big screen in front of you.