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Summary:
A young 19th century Englishman in a small town called Wall decides to go beyond the wall that the town is so aptly named for. He ends up in a fairy tale world, and 9 months later has a baby turn up at his doorstep. 18 years later, his son decides to pass through the wall to catch a star that fell from the sky as a present for the girl he adores. In the fairy tale world, the star is an actual person, who is being chased by witches for her valuable heart, and young Tristan ends up in his own adventure in an attempt to get back home with his fallen star.

Review:
When I read Gaiman's novelized account of his graphic novel, I thought it was not just a quick read, but had several interesting twists on the conventional fairy tale theme. When things seem to be going the way most stories of this kind are supposed to, Gaiman was smart enough to change it up enough to keep the readers on their toes. I also read it and thought, "Hm. This could be a pretty fun movie."
So now, having seen Stardust, I have to say that the best elements of the book were translated wonderfully to the big screen. It could have been an absolute disaster, but good fortune has smiled upon this movie and turned out to be one of the most entertaining movies of the year. It is funny, clever, whitty, nicely acted, well cast, imaginative, funny, fantastic, charming, looked good for the given budget, and did I also mention it was funny?
I know I'm not the first, and I won't be the last to compare this movie to The Princess Bride. The former is still the better movie, but Stardust worked on many of the same levels. First, it's a fairy tale story that has unconventional solutions to the typical themes presented. It is also a slightly fluffy and light movie, never going into the darker deeper realms of a Brothers Grimm kind of setting. There is punchy dialog, has a great cast of mostly unknowns, and most of all... it works well for the kids and is still smart and funny enough for the adults. There are countless movies that rock when you're ten and then you grow up only to think to yourself, "I can't believe I was stupid enough at one time to think this was great film making."
Charlie Cox, whom I have never heard of, did a great job as the slightly naive but well meaning Tristan. He starts out as an honest young man, and over the course of the film does the expected and transforms into the story's hero. I liked the scene in which he gets a haircut, and before the cut he has short hair, and the next scene has him in long flowy hair, thus transforming him even more into the eventual fairy tale hero. This movie really made ME want to have long hair, because once that happens I'll be able to fence well, I can speak with more eloquence, I can dance good, the ladies will all desire me for my sexiness, and I will also be able to handle difficult odds with the ease of a long haired English superhero. How much better does it get?

Note to self: Learn to speak with a distinguished English accent.

The rest of the cast is almost ensemble like. Claire Danes was charming as Yvaine, and I'm not normally that big of a fan of hers. She doesn't turn me off, I just don't think much one way or another of her. Pfeiffer still looks real good! There are cameos with Ricky Gervais, Peter O'Toole, Rupert Everett, and the narrator is Sir Ian McKellan hiimself. It's fair to say that the ultimate in scene stealing goes to Robert De Niro. I won't ruin the fun to be had with his little bit, but I had one baleful gust of laughter after another when he was on screen.
De Niro is by no means the only reason to be laughing. It might seem at first that a lot of moments seem unintentionally funny, but then the more you watch it, the more apparent it is that no, they completely intend to have you laughing at everything you're actually laughing at. Take for example a scene in which a character is confessing their love to a person that was turned into a mouse, and right at the line "I love you," there is a deliberate closeup shot of the mouse in the cage. How that can NOT be on purpose? I also loved the swelling hero score building to a crescendo as Tristan runs through the forest to catch a moving carriage, only to jump out of the trees and smash into the moving carriage head on, with just as abrupt of a stop of the score. Classic.

Stardust is a laugh a minute, and the extremely effective cast does a great job with the wonderful material they had to work with. It's one of those rare moments in which a movie has the right people at the right time working with something that they believe in, and it all comes together with just the right mix of elements. It's passable family fair, works as a charming fairy tale, and will probably be well liked by not just the kids but the adults as well, for many of the same reasons as well as some other reasons that the kids will miss until they reach a certain age. My main complaints would be that it seemed a little bit too long even though I was entertained throughout, and in some ways, it felt like it was a little too fluffy and light. Then again, these are very small complaints, and I pretty much loved it. GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

GRADE: A-

Reviewed 8/30/07