Stardust
Many times when a big-budget movie is made, the filmmakers make a mistake of casting an unknown in the lead role who is so bad that he literally stinks up the joint and ruins the experience. This is pretty much the exception: Charlie Cox as Tristen actually manages to come across well, and pulls off the mean feat of holding his own with a formidable supporting cast. The film itself is sort of a cross between Lord Of The Rings and Princess Bride, presenting an original fantasy realm while being smart and witty enough to keep adults entertained. The early scenes set a nice mood as we meet Tristen’s father and his encounter with a beautiful princess who is also a witch’s slave girl. Tristen’s quest to recover a fallen star to prove his love to a beautiful village girl moves along nicely, save when the story loses focus temporarily when he finds himself on a skybound pirate ship led by Robert DeNiro as the gay captain. Even though early on we’re told that Tristen has a week to complete his mission, he spends enough time on the ship for DeNiro to teach him the art of swordfighting and the fallen star to dance the waltz, not to mention a fairly useless cameo by Ricky Gervais as a shady fence. The rest of the time, though, things are paced quite well, and the acting is top-notch. Claire Danes as the fallen star certainly doesn’t need any glowing special effects when she smiles to appear luminous, but nonetheless it adds to her appeal; Michelle Pffeiffer’s Witch Queen is a suitably evil villainess, with much of the film’s humor coming as she loses her youth the more magic she uses; Sienna Miller is appropriately stuck-up yet charming as the village girl Tristan loves; Peter O’Toole contributes a fun cameo as the dying King; Mark Strong’s evil prince gets some good moments of diabolical craftiness, and the idea of having his dead brothers accompany him as ghosts is pretty hilarious; Rupert Everett barely has time to register before being tossed out a window; and as for DeNiro, while it’s nice to see him cut loose here (including prancing around in drag), the point of his character is to lead up to a scene with an awkward PC message of gay acceptance, which feels a bit out of place for a fantasy film. Regardless, the film has many scenes both funny and charming (including Danes confessing her love to a mouse), and it all adds up to a quality kid’s film with enough substance for grown-ups also…
8/10