Posted on Friday 19 October 2007

Stardust

Cinema review
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole
Release date 19 October 2007

To win the affections of his sweetheart, Tristan (Cox) crosses the wall that separates his town from the magical kingdom of Faerie to retrieve a fallen star. Only the ‘star’ turns out to be a girl named Yvaine (Danes) who doesn’t particularly want to be retrieved…

Stardust is Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn’s attempt to create a whimsical fairytale along the lines of 80s classics like Time Bandits or The Princess Bride. If it lacks the weird, dark edge of the former and the snappy dialogue of the latter, Vaughn’s film is still an amusing, effect-filled romp that outclasses any of the bloated blockbusters of this summer.

Vaughn (who co-wrote the script with Jane Goldman) tones down the sex and violence of Neil Gaiman’s novel for a more family-friendly adventure. The result is a little too eager too please, with the frenetic plot stuffing in everything from Robert De Niro as a frock-wearing pirate to Ricky Gervais essentially playing himself (again). It’s an episodic picture too, hurtling from one plot thread to another with barely a pause for breath, though you could level the same charge at many of the fantasy adventures that Vaughn has drawn inspiration from. What Stardust is missing is the real sense of quirky wonder that marked those earlier pictures, and in many ways the film feels like your typical (though very accomplished) CGI-heavy modern fantasy.

Nevertheless, it’s impossible not to warm to the movie, mainly thanks to captivating performances from Casanova’s Charlie Cox as the awkward hero and Claire Danes as the wonderfully stroppy Yvaine. The gradual romance between them develops in a way that is both sweet and amusing (Yvaine only feels comfortable declaring her love for Tristan after he’s been turned into a mouse!). Then there’s a wickedly entertaining Michelle Pfeiffer, whose mischievous smile and sultry eyes are used to good effect as the scheming witch Lamia, a character not above turning people into goats or carrying out the occasional murder in her quest for eternal youth.

The leads are backed up by a veritable roll-call of British talent (including Mark Walliams, Rupert Everett and Mark Heap) as the princes competing to become the next king of the land, and who appear as a line up of chattering disfigured ghosts in some of the film’s funniest scenes. Matt McAllister