Stardust
A thoroughly enjoyable, sweetly simple fairy tale, and a none-too-shabby adaptation of a novel by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman.
Not that it’ll have me petitioning Matthew Vaughn to adapt Gaiman’s American Gods. Any adaptation of a novel, fantasy or otherwise, has to make sacrifices or changes, simplifications – some of these work well, and the film has the benefit of being fast-paced (I’m a great believer in short films). Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, with some sections feeling rushed. In particular, the hero’s reunion with his long lost mother just seems tacked on – we know who she is, but he doesn’t, so more could have been made of the moment, but it’s lost in the middle of the climatic showdown. And there are rather too many pace-setting aerial shots of characters dashing across picturesque British scenery to rousing music (having said that, a lot of the scenery is Skye, so I’m not really complaining – I kept having little ‘Ooh, I know that’ moments)
The casting is great, although falling rather excessively into the cameo-happy approach favoured by current Brit-comedy – working it’s way down (via narration by Ian McKellen) from Peter O’Toole as the dying king of the magical kingdom of Stormhold, through his seven sons played by Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Mark Heap and Julian Rhind-Tutt from Green Wing, Adam Buxton, David Walliams and Mark Strong. Ricky Gervais is in there too, doing the same thing he always does, only in a silly hat. And Mark Williams turns up as a goat.
Of course, the big names in the film are Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. De Niro is a delight as the sky pirate with a secret (not a dark secret, more a pink and fluffy secret). and Pfeiffer has great fun in a role that could be seen as a comment on, despite looking as beautiful as ever, Hollywood clearly considers her a terrible ancient hag.
Then there’s the leads: Claire Danes, who’s absurdly luminous even without the CG that makes her glow in the role of a fallen star. It’s a nice role for her, but not challenging, and she doesn’t get to utilise the lip-trembling distress that made her name (guaranteed to reduce an entire cinema to tears in 5 seconds). The hero, Tristan Thorn, is played by Charlie Cox, in his first lead role – a sweet, natural performance (Cox all soft features and puppy-dog eyes – isn’t he lovely?).
It’s a slight, sweet film – a candyfloss movie. Given that so many fairytales are being dredged for their dark subtext, it’s quite refreshing.
Spoiler-ish clip from Stardust with a lovely little transformative moment from Charlie Cox – wait for the little shoulder flex…
I saw:
- 23/08/07, 7.40pm: Stardust (Cineworld 2)
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