Claire Danes stars as a fallen star--literally--named Yvaine who crash lands on the earth after getting knocked out of the night sky by a flying royal necklace. The necklace was flung into the sky by the dying king (Peter O’Toole) of the magical kingdom of Stormhold, who tossed it away to provide a royal challenge for his surviving sons: whichever one finds the necklace will become the rightful king of Stormhold. As if being stranded on earth, away form her heavenly friends, wasn’t enough, Yvaine is also facing a major problem. She’s being hunted down by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), an evil witch who wants to cut out Yavine’s heart and eat it in order to maintain her eternal beauty.
And as if this wasn’t enough, a love-struck young man by the name of Tristan
(Charlie Cox), eager to offer proof of his love to the vapid and shallow Victoria
(Sienna Miller), leaves his normal-world village of Wall to go searching in
the magical land of Stormhold for a fallen star to bring back to his bride to be. Using a Babylon candle,
Tristan is instantly teleported to the crater in which Yvaine’s fall to earth
created. Taking the hapless fallen star captive, Tristan is intent on bringing
her back to the real-world of Wall, unknowing of the dangers that both he and
Yvaine face.
Based on the novel by renowned fantasy author Neil Gaiman, Stardust takes a while to get going, but once it does, it’s a lot of fun. While Stardust takes its premise seriously, with its heroes facing real threats (Michelle Pfeiffer is especially good as the venomous Lamia), it’s still got a great sense of humor about itself that never detracts from the story. Robert De Niro co-stars as Captain Shakespeare, the commander of a flying pirate airship that harvests lighting within the clouds. He’s got a fierce reputation of being a murderous pirate leader, which he maintains through deception because, deep down, he’s really an old softie at heart who likes to wear women’s clothing from time to time.
Add to the fact that Ricky Gervais (The Office, Extras) also co-stars as Ferdy
The Fence, Captain Shakespeare’s motor mouth buyer of lightning bolts, and
you’ve got some pretty funny moments in an overall charming fantasy movie.
Claire Danes handles her part as the beleaguered Yvaine with comic aplomb, and
newcomer Charlie Cox holds his own with her, as well as the rest of this
seasoned cast. The DVD extras are decent, with a great 'making of' feature, outtakes
and deleted scenes.
But the film itself is the real draw here. Fans of off-kilter fantasies like The
Princess Bride may enjoy this one.
--SF
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