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| Stardust (2007) |
I'll start by simply saying, the world of this movie is perhaps the best thing about it. You can really tell a lot of work went into the world-building, as every single backdrop seems like it fits in the movie perfectly. Everything has a purpose, everything is there for a reason for the plot, but it never seems out of place. It's a vibrant world, and one of the great things about it is how little expositional dialogue is used throughout. I'd even wager to say, there is no dialogue in this entire movie, that doesn't come from the Narrator, which is purely expositional. The movie never feels the need to explain its world to the audience; it's a master of show-don't-tell. They even had the 'fish-out-of-water' character in Tristan, and even Yvaine to a certain extent, yet there's never any 'You see, this is how this thing works, audience- I mean, character' moments. That's truly impressive, especially when there's so much going on.
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| Michelle Pfeiffer as Larnia |
To a certain extent, I feel like the weakest part of the story is the plot itself. It's a basic escort mission, fairly by-the-numbers when you really boil down to it. And, yeah, that is a criticism, but where I feel it makes up for it is, not only is the world unique enough that it's a good enough distraction for the most part, but the film keeps itself varied enough to keep you invested despite that. There are a lot of unique settings here, to the point where the characters being transported to the clouds just seemed perfectly normal when it happened. At the centre of this escort mission are Yvaine and Tristan, and while you could basically tell exactly what their stories were going to be from the moment they met each other, the characters themselves are incredibly likeable, and their chemistry great enough to keep things interesting. Claire Danes and Charlie Cox are excellent in these roles. Although, to be honest, I really wish the movie hadn't gone for the 'tragic misunderstanding towards the end of the second act' thing. The movie doesn't dwell on it for long, so it's forgiveable, but it is the catalyst for the entire third act, and when you consider that if Tristan had just worded his message differently, everything would have been fine, it is a little distracting.
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| Claire Danes as Yvaine and Charlie Cox as Tristan |
There are a lot of other characters in this movie, and they're all really great characters in their own right. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a great villain, no surprises there, and the fact that they really let her play up the crazy by the end is wonderful. I love that Robert de Niro got to go a little out of his typecast role, and I genuinely adored Captain Shakespeare by the end. Really, though, no character felt wasted. Even the ridiculously minor appearances, like Mark Williams as a human goat, or the seven brothers, or the miserly wall guard. Everyone had a place in this movie, and that's rare to see with a cast this big. Initially, I felt the plight of Septimus could have been removed and, with a rewrite, everything would shape up basically the same by the end, but I'm really glad he was in this movie. We got some truly amazing moments, like his encounter with Tristan or the voodoo doll fight, or the pure badassery of "Do you work for my brother?" All of those moments got an audible reaction out of me.
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| Mark Strong as Septimus |
A huge thing that makes this movie so amazing is really just the strength of its writing. I mentioned earlier that the world-building felt really well thought out, but the dialogue is incredibly sharp as well. The funnier moments were really funny, and the fact that Ricky Gervais wasn't unbearable was a miracle. I don't want that to sound like I hate Ricky Gervais, I actually really like him, but half the time he's not writing for himself, he's not that great, but here he was really, really funny. Moreover, the fact that the more serious dialogue about love and stars and all that never made me want to kill myself or groan impulsively or tear my own ears out is truly an accomplishment. Then, the movie ended and I see the film was based on a book by Neil Gaiman, and everything made sense. Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers. I've never read any of his books, but everything I've seen that he was involved in has been excellent. I really loved Coraline when I saw it in cinemas, and both of his efforts in writing for Doctor Who rank among my favourite episodes in the entire show. I don't know if he had a hand in penning the screenplay for the movie itself, or if he was just a producer, but whichever way it was, you can really tell his influence here.
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| Robert de Niro as Captain Shakespeare |
Stardust (2007) is a movie that I'm sure to be coming back to time and time again. Not bad for never having heard of it 24 hours ago. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but it's a lot of fun, moving in places, and really intelligently written from all sides. What more do you want? 9/10.
