Stardust (dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2007) - Review

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Like its obvious model, The Princess Bride—and The Princess Bride’s progenitors, from Monty Python to silent swashbucklers —Stardust is a film for people who like wisecracking, sword fights, magical transformations, parables of self acceptance, and, most importantly, true love. Slicing through the customary layers of self-abasing, trenchant rhetoric common to films of the aughts, Stardust conveys a child's whimsical sense of wonder alongside an adult wryness, via a turn from Robert de Niro as a crossdressing pirate with dreams of the Folies-Bergère.

Adapting Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel, director Matthew Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman deftly preserve Gaiman’s characteristic balance of immersive escapism and fantasy alongside quietly realistic messages. Remarkably, this register- key to Gaiman’s method of reawakening his audience’s inner child without pandering to them- is not only preserved but expanded by the dubious medium of a big-budget summer movie, flavouring light family entertainment with a sharper element.

Curtain-pated simp Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox) is a shopboy in the quaint English village of Wall, so named for the crumbling stone border that surrounds it. When a falling star offers an opportunity to win the heart of his snooty paramour Victoria (Sienna Miller), Tristan pursues it over the wall, to find not a sizzling lump of space rock, but a beautiful young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes)- for he has entered the enchanted realm of Stormhold.

In a premise not unlike a magical, Merrie Olde Englande version of Borat 2, Tristan decides to to haul his comely female cargo into town to barter the affections of his petulant blond target. To do so, though, he must fend off a trio of witches, intent on devouring Yvaine’s heart to restore their youth, led by the villainous yet very sexy Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer). Lamia adds a touch of Devil Wears Prada to the sisterly coven, dropping lines like ‘has your mind become as decrepit as your face?’ to keep her less foxy siblings in line. As a counterpart to the lashings of Hollywood glamour, a crack team of character actors are deployed to add the elements of sarcasm, lunacy, evil, and archaism variously evoked by ‘Britishness’: naturally, this is done through a succession plotline.

It transpires that Stormont’s dying king (Peter O'Toole) has sent his horde of sons on a bloody quest to claim the throne by retrieving a gem which has, by dint of a stratospheric pile-up, knocked Yvaine plummeting to Earth with the item attached to her neck. Greasy-haired, ruthless Prince Septimus (a majestic Mark Strong) dominates the brotherly race to kill one another off until the last survivor ascends the throne, with their ghosts forming a Greek chorus to comment on the adventure until a new king is crowned.

Alongside the playful whimsy of the various factions, Vaughn dazzles his audience with the storybook landscapes of. mountains, cliffs, castles, and the obligatory ‘crowded bazaar chase scene’. Robert de Niro’s role in the swashbuckling derring-do encapsulates the strategy: Captain Shakespeare appears mid-story to provide the mentorship role typically assumed by the Gay Best Friend in romcoms of this period, giving his charges a makeover, swordfighting lessons, and a lesson in self-acceptance by reconciling his love of pink tutus with his day job as a buccaneer.

Away from the main plot, a further rash of stock-character Brits gives the Hollywood parable a comfortable, innocuous grounding in stereotypes, from Ian McKellen's storybook narration, to Ricky Gervais’s turn as a petty, mildly narcissistic office manager. Henry Cavill even pops up, fulfilling his equally natural function as a statement of unattainably generic chiselled hotness, as Tristan’s competition Humphrey.

Not just despite, but because of its ridiculous sappiness, Stardust is just an enjoyable two hours, gamely cramming all manner of grisly murder, questionable gender politics, and dicey CGI into a compact fairytale format. Vaughn’s thoughtful script, and a stellar cast who have enthusiastically committed to the rather childish mindset which the film requires, encourage the audience to join them, in an enthusiastic and heartfelt enlivening of Gaiman’s vision.