Review 425: Stardust

 

"A Philosipher once asked, Are we human because we gaze up at the stars, or do we we gaze at them because we're human? Pointless, really, Do the stars gaze back? Now that is the question." That is the question that opens Stardust, a beautifully made, whimsical and thoroughly enjoyable fantasy film

Based on the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) is a young man who lives in the English town of Wall, which is on the border of the magical kingdom of Stormhold.
Tristen enters the Kingdom in the hopes of collecting the fallen star to give to his crush Victoria (Sienna Miller), in return for her hand in marriage. He succeeds in collecting the star who, to his surprise, has taken the form of a beautiful woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes).
As Tristan attempts to get her back to Wall, they're tracked by a trio of witches led by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Princes Primus (Jason Flemying) and Septimus (Mark Strong).
The witches are hunting Yvaine because they want to reclaim their youth and the princes because she unknowingly has a ruby in her possession which will make whichever one of them who finds it first the next King of Stormhold. Tristan must evade them if he hopes to get Yvaine back before Victoria's birthday, the deadline of her offer.

The plot is a brilliantly written, superbly crafted, exciting & spectacular adventure. When you boil it down, Stardust is essentially three converging storylines: Tristan and Yvaine are the A-story, the witches are hunting Yvaine are the B-story and the Princes quest is the C-story. They're not really a plot and two subplots they're three concurrent plots that all happen to be connected by what basically is a living MacGuffin which happens to be Yvaine. But the great thing is, it works. Writer/director Matthew Vaughn and his screenwriting partner Jane Goldman do a simply stupendous job weaving together the three storylines together. They transition seamlessly.

The atmosphere gives you what you've come to expect from a fantasy film with magic, wicked witches, flying pirates, princes and princess but it also has this clever side to it. Yes, by genre it's a fantasy adventure but it also has elements of romance, comedy/it's funny,

Writer/director Matthew Vaughn's direction is excitingly lively, the production design is stupendous; bringing the world of Stormhold to life with the inspired blend of the fantasy flare with Tudor and 11th Century architecture - the Witches lair looking clearly inspired by the mirror hallway in Versailles.

The costumes are fantastic, the score by Ilan Eshkeri is beautifully catchy, the locations are beautiful, the special effects are terrific, the scenery is breathtaking, the action scenes are exciting and splendidly staged and choreographed.

Charlie Cox is terrific playing Tristan Thorn, his arc is magnificently uplifting going from a simple shop boy to a noble, suave, honourable hero. Part of how  is how he's initially smitten with Victoria even though she's particularly nice to him, yet he ignores that because he's entranced by her. Over the course of the film he finds himself falling in love with Yvaine even though he originally saw her as a prize to win Victoria over. 

Claire Danes is luminous and lovely playing Yvaine. Having literally dropped out of the sky, she's initially very cold and rude towards Tristan, understandable given that he chained her up and then forced her to walk many miles just so that he could present her as a prize to his crush.

She's also quite naive and hasn't quite got a tight grasp on human behaviour  Yvaine is essentially a living MacGuffin, one that can grant the one that touches her heart everlasting life, but Danes shows us that she's so much more than that 

Mark Strong is simply excellent as Prince Septimus, this guy is so ruthless and determined in his unrelenting quest to retrieve the ruby to claim his birthright as well as Yvaine to gain immortality.

Robert DeNiro, in a very different role than what we're used to seeing him in, provides a great deal of laughs as Captain Shakespeare, the jovial, unorthodox Pirate Captain who helps Tristan & Yvaine on their grand adventure. Even though it's a small role and only appears in a handful of scenes DeNiro injects the role with a large, healthy amount of zest that makes a true joy to watch. He goes from being a silly, eccentric transvestite to a badass, swashbuckling, non-nonsance pirate at the drop of a hat and DeNiro pulls that transition off with masterful skill.

As the Lamia, leader of the witches, Michelle Pfeiffer makes for a stupendous villain. Lamia is just purely vain. She will do anything and everything she can to get her looks back and to do that, she desires Yvaine's heart so that she may remain young and beautiful.

Stardust is one of those rare films where even the smallest roles are well cast and the actors & characters make an impact. Sienna Miller, for instance is excellent as Victoria, the upper class girl who Tristan is interested in. She's snooty, snobby, looks down upon him and is clearly out of his but Tristan ignores all that because he's just infatuated with her and Miller plays the role with such a strong sense of self-importance that Miller also lights up the screen whenever she's on.

Also great in a small role is Peter O'Toole as the dying King of Stormhold who sets the events of the film in motion. His role is small but it's pivotal pertaining to the events of film. He's pretty much the instigator of the whole quest for Yvaine, so to speak. He's only in a single scene but predictably he makes it a memorable one. 

Also in a bit part, Ricky Gervais as a petty Fence doing business with Captain Shakespeare.

Providing some laughs are Mark Heap, David Walliams, Julian Rhind Tutt and Adam Buxton as the ghosts of the former princes of Stormhold

Stardust shines brightly, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic