Film Reviews
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Enchanted: Stardust
by M. Faust
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Michelle Pfeiffer in "Stardust."
If you’re in my line of work, you don’t look forward to August. It’s the time when a large part of the moviegoing audience is preoccupied with getting the most out of the precious days remaining before school resumes. And because they know that attendance will be off until early September, the studios use late August as a time to dump all the movies in which they have no confidence onto the theater screens of America. The reviewer’s only consolation is that at least the studios tend not to screen these movies, figuring (wisely enough) that there’s no sense courting bad reviews.
Adapted from a fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, Stardust wasn’t initially scheduled to be previewed in Buffalo at all. Combine that with a minimal amount of advance publicity and other signs of apparent indifference from the studio, and one inevitably starts to hear the gobbling of a big fat turkey. So when a screening was arranged at pretty much the last possible moment, I can’t say that I attended with any high expectations.
Boy, was I wrong!
I suppose the studio feared that this might only appeal to a select audience. Maybe they’re right. The only people likely to enjoy it are fans of movies like The Princess Bride, Shrek, the Harry Potter films, or Terry Gilliam movies like Time Bandits. Hard to see how you could make any money appealing to that demographic.
But let me set aside the fearsome cudgel of my sarcasm. Stardust is simply the most delightful time I’ve had at the movies in far too long.
Part of the fun is the overstuffed nature of the plot, which is complex but easy to follow. In the mid 1800s a young man named Tristan lives a humble life in the British village of Wall, so named for its proximity to a long wall that no one is allowed to pass. It separates England from the magical land of Stormhold, a place that evokes little curiosity from Tristan’s fellow villagers. But when he sees a chance to win the love of his heart’s desire, a fickle young woman named Victoria (Sienna Miller), it’s over the Wall wall for Tristan.
Tristan’s big adventure involves a young lady of mystical nature named Yvaine (Claire Danes), who for reasons I won’t attempt to go into is also sought by the witch Lamia. She is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who looks awfully good for a woman of her age—or for that matter a woman of any age. Her efforts give rise to most of the film’s special effects sequences, which are as spectacular as anything you could hope for in a movie like this.
Yvaine is further sought by the would-be heirs of the recently deceased king (Peter O’Toole), who goes to his grave delighted by the knowledge that his sons are settling the line of succession by killing each other. The losers form a growing chorus line of princely corpses, all bearing signs of the means by which they were dispatched, who observe and comment on the story.
And there’s a pirate captain named Billy Shakespeare, about whom the less said the better other than that he is played by Robert DeNiro with such obvious relish that you wonder if he paid the producers for the privilege. In all honesty it’s a performance that doesn’t entirely work, but DeNiro is so clearly having a good time that it’s hard to begrudge him the attempt. And by the way, hisses and boos to the publications, including the New York Times, that have spoiled the surprise of his character.
Though Stardust has a flavor of the darkness that weaves through Gaiman’s work, it has been expanded in this adaptation co-written by director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) and Jane Goldman (a British TV personality and wife of the ubiquitous Jonathan Ross). Some of what they’ve done to the book is to take advantage of the talents of the cast—DeNiro in particular, and also Ricky Gervais, who genially improvises his way through a bit as a buyer of stolen goods.
For the benefit of adults like you and me, they’ve also added a level of sometimes dark, sometimes ribald humor. Most of it will go over the heads of younger children, though there’s no question that it earns its PG-13 rating.
But for the moviegoer of every age they’ve also enlarged the visual palate of the story. Gaiman’s standard issue pirate ship takes wing and soars through the skies. Stormhold has a greater variety of countryside, including some gorgeous settings filmed in Iceland and Scotland. (If you wait to see this until it comes out on DVD, you will be sorry.)
Here’s something I don’t get to say nearly often enough: I loved this movie.
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