Stardust
Stardust (2007)
Starring - Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller,
Directed By - Matthew Vaughn
Billed as the fairytale that wont behave, not quite sure about that, their is an old fashioned feel about this film which leads it to be very some, on occasion too well, behaved. A fun film with many flaws too, Stardust will be a film that is a question of taste.
The plot does have an old fairytale feel. A wall divides England and Stormhold. Whena young mand crosses the wall and has a liaison with a lady on the other side, it produces a son, Triston. Triston is brought up in England until he is older, we then flash forward to Triston pusuing his love, Victoria (Sienna Miller) who is cold and shows little interest, but agrees to marry him if he crosses the wall and brings back the jewel from the star they see cross the wall for her birthday.
This leads Triston (Charlie Cox) to Stormhold. The star turns out to be a beautiful woman (Claire Danes) called Yvaine. The search for the start is joined by the son of the king of Stormhold, Septimus (Mark Stong) who needs the star to become the new king as his father is on his deathbed. Just to add to the mayhem, a witch named Lamia (Michelle Pfieffer) is also after the star as if she cuts the heart out of the start she will obtain eternal youth.
So a three way race for the star, and in Triston's case to get it back to the other side of the wall is on. However, during the journey he realises his true love is actually Yvaine and not Victoira who is only interested in material things. The end game produces a startling revelation reagrding the true aire of Stormhold that changes the situation completely, and gives Triston the chance of true happyness by staying on the Stormhold side of the wall, if the others don't take the star first of course.
This is all very nice and lovely, and a perfect date movie. We also got an amusing interlude by Robert De Niro playing the at first glance tough but in reality not, Captain Shakespeare of the ship that sails the skys. Ricky Gervais also makes an appearence pretty much playing himself. It's a nice, heart warming fairy tale of the days of old, nothing uniquely special about it and the relationship between Danes and Cox does not really spark, although Cox does a good job playing the gallant young man. I enjoyed Mark Storng's performance as Prince Septimus, Pfieffer was less convincing.
Overall good fluffy stuff, nothing special, but a nice film for a nice night out.
MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - RATING 'B' - A 'B' rating on the A+ to F scale means good, and that sums this up perfectly. Lovers of fantasy, adventure type films may rate it more highly, if you want a more seriously acted film, stay away.
