Stardust is the story of Tristan Thorne’s quest to bring back a star for his lady love Victoria in order to win her hand in marriage. Unfortunately for him the falling star in question happens to have fallen across the Wall, in the fairytale land of Stormhold, a fantastical place where unicorns roam, witches stalk, and cross dressing flying pirate captains mince wildly. Yes, that’s right, Stormhold is a unpredictable land which throws up many obstacles in Tristan’s path, not least of which is the fact the star is not simply a lump of cold rock, but a living person, and one in a bad temper at that, Yvaine. So begins a story in which Tristan is to find his true love in the least expected of places, inherit his true birthright, fight witches, learn swordplay, get a make over from a pirate captain, and (oddly enough) grow long proper adventurous looking hair (well adventurous hair extensions anyway).
As so often happens when a film is based on a book I love (and I love none more than Neil Gaimen’s books) I was truly apprehensive about how it would turn out; there is nothing worse than watching what is not only a bad film, but a bad film that ruins a good book too. Happily this is not the case with Stardust.
Boasting an all star cast, if you look closely even the background characters are all stars of film, tv, or comedy, the acting in this film was never going to be at fault. In fact it can at times become a game of spot the celebrity, competing with friends to see how can recognise the most stars beneath the make up.
In the lead role Charlie Cox plays a convincing Tristan, managing to be likeable, wide eyed, and determined in all the right places, and seems to be genuinely having fun with his role which really comes across. The excellent Claire Danes as Yvaine is exquisitely pouty, argumentative, and heart melting, a difficult combination demanded by the role, but one she manages to deliver with definite style. It’s impossible not to mention Michelle Pfeiffer as the utterly evil witch Lamia, who puts in a great and enthusiastic performance that rarely spills over into self parody. To be honest I’m not a fan of Pfeiffer’s work, but she manages to steal almost every scene she’s in with just her immense screen presence.
Likewise putting in a grand and memorable performance is De Niro as Captain Shakespeare, a flying pirate with a violent reputation who is secretly a closet cross dresser and Anglophile. Despite being initially ridiculous this character actually grows beyond a characature thanks to De Niro’s acting skills, and serves as an important tool in developing the character of Tristan under his guidance.
In short this film does deliver everything it promises to: fantastical characters and creatures, adventure, humour, romance, - but there are a few niggling aspects that left me wanting more.
The only real failing of the film, which I’m not sure you can even count as a failing, is how far it errs from the book on which it is based. All the dark edge and violence that marks Gaimen’s fairytale for adults is lost in the screen adaption, consequently the film is almost permanently light hearted, something that means some scenes lose a certain potential gravitas. Whereas Gaimen’s ending had a reconcilliation of sorts between Lamia and Yvaine that stops the moral of the story ever being simple, the film loses this for a sickeningly sugary sweet hollywood ending that fails to impress. Likewise unable to believe audiences could stomach seeing the main characters die, even happily at a ripe old age, the screen writers instead choose to have Tristran and Yvaine transported to the stars instead. But these are perhaps inevitable given the films desire for a young audience and wide spread box office appeal.
While fans of Gaimen shouldn’t expect to see the novel made film when they watch Stardust, they can expect an enjoyable adventure that will have them leaving the cinema with an amused smile on their faces.
