Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
8/16/07
Comic
fantasy may be the hardest genre to judge on the basis of loglines, ads
and trailers because it is absolutely, 100% about tone. Sure, other
genres may ask you to take leaps of space and time and completely disregard
everything you know about the laws of physics, and all comedies require
you to share their sense of humor on some level. But a meat and potatoes
comic fantasy flick asks you not only to believe in dragons, witches, and
unicorns and not only to think they're pretty darn cool, but also to think
that the very fabric of its' universe is inherently fun. The gold
standard for this sort of thing is Rob Reiner's classic The Princess
Bride, with one of the definitive William Goldman scrips and the star-making
performances of Robin Wright, Cary Elwes and Mandy Patankin. Even
when it goes a little over the top, every frame of that movie is joyous,
and the lead characters are as virtuous as they are hilarious. Exactly
20 years later, Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn has worked similar
magic on Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust, creating a remarkable fantasy
work awash in pure, romantic fun.
In
Victorian England, young Dunstan Thorn (Ben Barnes) lives in the town of
Wall, which is near... The Wall. It is guarded by an ancient man
(David Kelly) who is to let no one pass for reasons that are not entirely
clear to those on the outside. One night, Dunstan slips past him
and enters a fairy tale kingdom, where he has a chance meeting with a Slave
Girl (Kate Magowan) at a magical carnival. One passionate night later,
he returns to Wall and nine months after that, a basket shows up at The
Wall containing his son Tristran. Years later, Tristran (Charlie
Cox) is a young shop boy hopelessly smitten with the selfish and vain Victoria
(Sienna Miller). One night he persuades her to join him on a picnic
and the two see a falling star. Knowing she is about to accept the
proposal of her perfect match, the unctuous Humphrey (Henry Cavill), Tristran
offers to cross The Wall and retrieve the star for her hand in marriage.
She agrees, and he sets off on a magical adventure. On the other
side of The Wall, he finds that the star is not a rock but a flesh-and-blood
woman named Yvaine (Clare Danes), and that the necklace she wears is the
key to deciding who will rule as the new King. Not only that, but
her heart holds the secret to eternal life, and 400-year-old witch Lamia
(Michelle Pfeiffer) will stop at nothing to get it in hopes of restoring
her long-lost youth. Can Charlie get Yvaine over The Wall in time
to stop Victoria's wedding? How will she get back to her home in
the sky? Will these two crazy kids/celestial objects find true love
with each other?
Those
are the broad strokes, but the wonder of Stardust is in the details.
Using the last remnants of the heart of the last star she and her wicked
sisters slayed, Lamia temporarily regains her youthful appearance but loses
a bit of it with every spell she casts. So when she sets a trap by
creating a roadside inn to draw Yvaine to her death, she uses bare minimum
effort, turning a goat into “innkeeper” Billy (Mark Williams), who's still
a little too goatlike to pass, and lacky Bernard (Jake Curran) into the
Innkeeper's Daughter (Olivia Grant) without bothering to change his voice.
Seven sons of the late King (Peter O'Toole) tirelessly pursue that necklace
that will give the one who changes its' color the crown, but as they kill
each other off for position, each is condemned to an afterlife as one of
a mutilated, ghostly Greek Chorus that follows the survivors' quest (it
may not sound that way, but this is a hoot). And our heroes greatest
ally in their quest is the diabolical pirate Captain Shakespeare (Robert
De Niro), who behind closed doors is slightly less manly than the facade
he puts on for his crew. OK, he's a REALLY gay pirate who likes to
wear dresses... just don't tell his men!
As
delightfully silly as so many of the goings-on are, the romantic core of
the story is, pardon the pun, luminous. Cox is so good at Tristran's
courtly naiveté, while Danes has never seemed more natural than
as the lost star who glows more brightly as her feelings for Tristran intensify.
Her British accent is so sharp you'd never know she's from New York City.
Pfeiffer walks the line between camp and menace to perfection, and Miller
has Victoria's heartless manipulations down cold, both playing their fairy
tale parts perfectly. De Niro often struggles with comic roles, but
his work as the Good Captain Shakespeare is an delight: he could
so easily distance himself from the role's “woopsie” side or mug away its'
sincerity, but he too walks a wonderful tightrope to seem as wise and generous
as he is absurd. Jason Flemyng leads a solid group of would-be kings
and ghosts. And Magowan and Nathaniel Parker (as the older Dunstan)
shine as Tristran's parents.
Vaughn
has been much in demand to direct a Hollywood blockbuster (he was briefly
attached to the 3rd X-Men movie), and his work here shows why.
He sets and maintains a perfect tone of fantastic whimsy, keeps his effects
(both special and makeup) organic, and gets uniformly strong performances
from a diverse cast. He also co-wrote (with an odd choice-British
TV paranormal expert Jane Goldman) a sparkling screenplay that builds beautifully
until it's able to pay off its' various prophecies, destinies and magics
to perfection in its' closing scenes.
It's
rare to find such a good cinematic comparison, but if you liked The
Princess Bride, odds are you'll like Stardust. It's as
good a major studio release as you can ask for in the waning days of Summer
and delivers pretty much everything you could ask for from a romantic fantasy.
OK, maybe they could have squeezed a dragon in there someplace, but it
definitely gets the tone right. |
