Thoughts of things that hit the reef…

Stardust (2007) [wiki] [imdb]

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Actors: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro

Stardust is based on the novel with the same name, written by Matthew Vaughn. It is yet another fantasy masterpiece from the pen of a British writer. It tells the story of a “boy becoming a man” to find his true love. This man is Tristan, a shop-boy, in a mid 19th century village in England. The village is called Wall because there is wall near the village which separates England from the magical kingdom of  Stormhold. Tristan wants to find a fallen star to get the girl he loves, Victoria, to marry him. The star felt down in Stormhold. Tristan finds out, that his mother lives in Stromwind and wants to visit her first and staring his search from there. He tries to travel to her with a Babylon candle, but he accidentally travels to the fallen star witch turned out to be a woman called Yvaine. So he decides to take the star to show her to his beloved Victoria but also promises to Yvaine, that he will use the candle to send her back home once they have reached Victoria. So the journey begins. But Tristan is not the only one looking for the star, there are also three witches and some princes.

My Opinion

Stardust is a British novel but thankfully not a British movie. That means, that beside a very nice story, we have also really amazing pictures and decent effects. Tristan is very well played by Charlie Cox, his character is trying to evolve from a boy to man. Even when his look doesn’t support this story, his character acting does. Claire Danes plays Yvaine, she is great eye-candy and a good actress. Yvaine at first wants to get back to her home, but is really fast overwhelmed by her feelings, which she never had before as a star. Robert De Niro is playing the sky-pirate Captain Shakespeare. Shakespeare is playing the hard and bad ass pirate but always wanted to be a coiffeur and he is gay. It is very funny to see Robert De Niro dancing in women dresses. One of the witches, Lamia, is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, the witches want the hearth of the star to stay young and alive. They have only little left from the last fallen star. To hunt Yvaine, Lamia eats the rest of the hearth and becomes young again but is rapidly aging when using her magic. By playing an aging witch, she is showing very lot of self-irony and therefore earns my respect. Despite that, her acting is also very nice.

“My humbled opinion”-o-meter: 5 out of 5 points. Because this movie is exciting from the first to the last minute. It tells a very nice story and has a great look and feel. Enjoy it!