A film already destined to become a beloved cult classic along the lines of ‘Princess Bride’, the good-natured fantasy adventure ‘Stardust’ based on a book by Neil Gaiman is the best unheralded film of last year.
Excitement-free trailers and marketing led to a lackluster August BO run, where ‘Stardust’ barely managed to eke out $38 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ flicks – the obvious greenlight inspiration – but unlike another recent fantasy bomb ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Stardust’ manages to surprise and delight for most of its running time.
Released after a bevy of blockbuster summer films like Spider-man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, The Transformers, etc., I think people were just tired of special f/x which is how the film was marketed. Luckily, the film is much funnier and looser than the previews would have you think.
And while the film is full of special effects, it’s Neil Gaiman’s original story – an amalgam of vision, enchantment and absurdity – adapted by Director Matthew Vaugn that propels this film way above the other dime a dozen turgid fantasy flicks e.g. ‘Eragorn’, ‘The Seeker…’, ‘The Golden Compass’ and so on.
Director Matthew Vaughn came off the effective small-time gangster flick ‘Layer Cake’ with Daniel Craig, flirted with and then ultimately turned down ‘X-Men III’ before turning his attention to ‘Stardust’.
And while the almost guaranteed BO success of ‘X-Men III’ was tempting, I still bet he’s proud of his decision to take on the more risky ‘Stardust’. He’s two for two and I can’t wait to see what he does with 2009’s ‘Thor’.
Our tale starts off in the appropriately titled Wall, England – a quaint little Victorian-era village full of cobblestone pathways and stone cottages so named for a rock wall that runs along one side that can never be crossed. Tristan Thorn (an audacious starring debut for Charlie Cox), a nerdy shopkeeper, lives out his young existence with his father and carrying some major lovelorn baggage for town beauty Victoria (Sienna Miller).
Always at a disadvantage when surrounded by the town’s hunkier offerings, he manages to court Victoria out of her house for a late-night stargazing picnic. Literally promising her a falling star, Victoria commits to a marriage proposal if Tristan can cross the wall and bring her back the star in less than a week.
Spurned by beauty, if not much else, Tristan sets off across the wall which just happens to contain a fantastical realm – a realm his father crossed into when he was his age. From here plot details get a little silly, convoluted perhaps, on paper but stay with me, it works much better on the screen.
So that star that fell? That star turns out to be the glowing Yvaine (Claire Danes), a beautiful woman-shaped star that also sports a bit of a stubborn streak. When Tristan tracks her down, she refuses to accompany him back to the wall.
All the while, we have a few antagonists to keep track of. Yvaine falling to Earth was no accident; she apparently got hit in the head with the King of Stormhold’s (Peter O’Toole) Royal Necklace – a highly desired object as whomever of the heirs reclaims the necklace gets to be crowned King.
No easy task considering the bevy of royal sons have a nasty habit of offing each other at the most inopportune times and then hanging around post-death to grovel and annoy.
Along with dastardly princes, a coven of witches also takes notice of the falling star. Using the hearts of stars to feed their powers and remain immortal, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), the prettiest of the sister coven and therefore the leader takes what little is left of their powers to track down the star and cut her heart out (more benign than it sounds if only just). So with Tristan promising Yvaine he can get her back home, she begrudgingly agrees – a fantasy, romantic take on ‘Midnight Run’ if you will.
So begins a series of close calls and misadventures that include great turns from Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare, a swashbuckling pirate a little less bloodthirsty than one might expect, Ricky Gervais as Ferdy the Fence and Melanie Hill as another nasty witch - Ditchwater Sal. Michelle Pfeiffer, absent from the big screen for awhile, really lets loose as Lamia and belts out a wickedly effective performance. Maybe it has something to do with ‘Witches of Eastwick’, but I can’t imagine a more perfect actress for the role.
DeNiro also has a lot of fun with the role – perhaps his most fun role to date where instead of usually playing the straight man in broad comedy (i.e. ‘Analyze This’ and ‘Meet the Parents’), he gets to dial up his surprisingly adept broad comedy skills.
Charlie Cox and Claire Danes play the effective bickering couple to a hilt and manage to generate great chemistry – a rapport that the film is centered around. Pythonesque English humor works well throughout the film and complements the tone nicely without pushing it into farce.
With more supporting work from ‘O’Toole’, Rupert Everett and Ian McKellan as the narrator, the film is never at a loss for interesting performances. I also think ‘Stardust’ is a pic that will get better each time you see it – a wonderfully old-fashioned fantasy swashbuckler romance that delivers at every level.
Paramount presents ‘Stardust’ in a pristine 2.35:1 AVC 1080p transfer. Great detail and color and while the source has some inherent grain, it never becomes overly distracting and faithfully recreates the theater experience.
There’s some softness here and there but overall the brightly-lit pic looks wonderful in HD. A Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track is the go to Audio here and is a competent track if a bit inconsistent. The lack of lossless continues to be perplexing however.
Considering lackluster box office, it’s no surprise ‘Stardust’ isn’t packed with special features. What we do get is a half-hour Making-Of that’s actually better than most with interviews, on-set footage and so forth, ‘Deleted Scenes’, a ‘Blooper Reel’ and a ‘Theatrical Trailer’ round out the extras. Too bad Paramount couldn’t see what a jewel they had and stock this puppy up accordingly…..if you build it, they will come….
To restate my opening, I found ‘Stardust’ to be one of the best unsung flicks of last year. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from this pic judging from the previews but rest assured this is one pic that justifies a blind buy – don’t rent, buy it. Vaughn takes Gaiman’s original story and fills it with fantastic actors all with great chemistry, a subtle effective humor, exciting adventure sequences, gorgeous English landscapes and even a romance that won’t have guys groaning and reaching for the remote.
The HD-DVD goes one step further to sport outstanding 1080p visuals and while the extras are a bit puny, this is one of my most highly recommended HD-DVDs of last year.
Stardust [HD DVD] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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