I went to see this movie with high hopes. I love love love The Princess Bride and was in the mood for another rollicking, amusing, fantastical adventure. Stardust seemed to be just the ticket to brighten my day.
The film is based on a novella by Neil Gaiman (which I haven’t read) and with one notable exception, has a knockout cast ably directed by Matthew Vaughn. In a nutshell, the tale tells the story of young Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox), the now-grown result of one stolen night of passion in the magical kingdom of Stormhold (conveniently located next to his village of Wall), who is very smitten with the comely, vain and shallow Victoria (Sienna Miller). To win her love, he vows to bring to her a fallen star which they had seen fall into Stormhold. Unfortunately the star is also spotted by three old crones, who also want to retrieve it as it will restore their full witchly powers and the lost beauty of their radiant youth. So, at the same time as Tristan bravely scales the boundary wall into Stormhold, Larnia (Michelle Pfeiffer) also sets forth, both of them hoping to secure the celestial prize. Tristan finds the site of the fallen star, and finds there a young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes), who (surprise!!) is the star that fell from heaven.
This is where the film fell thuddingly to earth for me, I’m afraid. It might just be my own perverse and, frankly baseless, prejudice but I just can’t stand Claire Danes. Oh, how she irritates me! Why oh why would I go to see a movie with Claire Danes in it? Why? Aaaaarggggh! She chokes me up with irrational spite. The woman can’t act. She’s plain. Plus, she’s got this really weird super-long-waisted, short-limbed thing going on, kind of like Matthew McConaughy. But not as pretty. Or as orange. Why is she in this film? Why? It needed an ethereal beauty. It needed acting. It needed sly humour. Claire Danes has none of these things. It needed… dare I say it?...It needed Gwyneth.
But if you ignore the Danes problem, it is a bit of enjoyable fluff. Our hero and his star encounter adventure, misadventure, oddball characters and true love. The film rollicks along, but not with breathless pace, and not with as much charm as I would have liked. Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert de Niro, Rupert Everett, Peter O’Toole, Ricky Gervais (did I mention the knockout cast?) are all terrific, though, and appear to have a lot of fun hamming it up. It’s no Princess Bride, but it’s not totally rubbish, either.
If I was going to award it a score out 10, I'd give it 6.5.
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6 comments:
I completely agree with your assessment of Danes as mildly unattractive - I kept thinking that she looks very plain in the ads. A bit pointy faced.
i love Gaiman books so this is disappointing. still, i think i'll need to see it for myself (if only to pay close attention to Claire Danes' strange proportions).
Do you think I might have been a little harsh with my snippy assessment of Danes?
Nah! Surely not!
Never can we be too harsh about the attractiveness of overpaid celebrities Meva. I feel that it is our primary purpose in life or maybe secondary after watching said celebrities.
Claire Danes shits me too. But so does Gwynneth Paltry. They just don't make blondes like they used to in the old days. And Big Bob De Niro needs to stop being such gal who cain't say no and start doing good films again!
Too true, KR. Tall poppies of the acting kind are just made for chopping off at the knees. (Wow! That imagery's a bit confused.) But Claire Dane's knees are so low to the ground I'd do my back in bending over.
I've changed my mind about Gwynnie over the years, RC. Couldn't tolerate her years ago, but now I don't mind so much. She has her uses in film. But you're so, so right about Big Bob. He needs to get back to what he does best and leave the comedy alone. At least for a while.
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