Stardust (2007)

This week seems to be birthday week for celebrities.  We have Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.  I was struggling to find a movie to watch for the next review and with that, I debated between “I am Sam” and “Stardust”.  Stardust won that battle.  Its one of those really fun adventure, romance and fantasy stories that I love.  I’ve had a tiring week (as I’ve mentioned SO many times before), so this seemed like a good choice to relax a bit 🙂

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Kate Magowan, Mark Strong, Ricky Gervais

In the village of Wall, a boy Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) sees a shooting star fall out of the sky and in pursuit for a girl, he promises her that he will get her that star even if it means crossing into the unknown on the other side of the guarded wall.  At the same time, he learns of the magical story of his parents and his life and this leads him to have to travel across the wall to search for his mother as well.  Travelling unexpectedly to the unknown, he crashes (literally) into a beautiful girl, Yvaine (Claire Danes) who turns out to be the shooting star he was looking for.  However, while he is trying to lead Yvaine back to Wall to see the girl he likes, they also learn that Yvaine is seeked by an old (and evil) witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) who wants to cut out her heart to regain her and her sister’s youth.  Tristan has to protect Yvaine in the process.  In addition, the magical world is also going through a leader dilemma as the former king on his death bed sent out a gem that will only change back to the original color with the destined heir who finds it.  With coincidence, it also leads to their search for Yvaine and Tristan.  As Yvaine and Tristan escape, their paths are intertwined with friends such as Captain Shakespeare (Robert DeNiro) and not just enemies.  They both also learn a little bit more about what love is.  As the narrator (Ian McKellan) says at the beginning: “This is a story about how Tristan Thorn becomes a man, a greater challenge altogether.”

This movie is adapted from a book by Neil Gaiman and thats something I didn’t know for so many years that I’ve been watching it.  I’ve never read or heard of the book so I’ll probably need to look it up someday.  I’m a huge fan of this flick.  Its magical, fun, humorous and just completely adventurous.  The story itself is so cute and just brings up this desire to fall in love and how love is quite magical in its own way.

The main characters have to be Claire Danes.  I’m a big fan of hers.  I haven’t seen her in a whole lot of stuff but every time I’ve seen on her scene, she has this elegance to her.  I don’t consider an absolutely beauty but she has a very elegant feeling to her when she talks and when she acts.  In this movie, we see both her as Yvaine and Charlie Cox (who I have never seen in anything else) as Tristan being pretty naive youngsters. They do a very good job at it.

My favorite character was Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare.  He plays a role where he pretends to be someone else to live up to his reputation.  As the Captain of a flying ship and following his father’s footsteps, he hides the fact that he actually is into plays and acting and occasionally dresses up in gowns and prances around with fans and whatnot.  Robert DeNiro is very much a manly man but its refreshing and funny to see him do this particular role.  It always makes me smile 🙂

I watched this movie in honor of Michelle Pfeiffer’s birthday. Her role as the evil Lamia was amazing.  But then, when is she not, right? I’m a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan and same with Meg Ryan, I have a lot of catching up to do for her movies as well.  In this one, she is so awesome.  And her makeup as an old woman is quite worth the applause because it is very convincing.  When she needs to pull out the evil side, she does it in such a convincing way from her expressions to the tone of voice.

Stardust has a fantastic cast and I love the story.  What makes this movie very good is that its a little over 2 hours long and I never feel the length of it at all.  Its not because all the movies nowadays are at least 2.5 hours long but rather, this movie doesn’t give you too much of a down period and keeps the adventures going and moves the storyline along very efficiently.

If you haven’t seen Stardust, I highly recommend it.  Its fun and amusing.  Its like entering into a fantasy magical world and meeting all your fairy tales good and bad all at once.  Plus, its about searching for true love, with princes, pirates, witches and a hero that shines through to his full potential when he becomes a man.

I’m a bit late for the talented Michelle Pfeiffer’s birthday.  Are you a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer? What made you like her or dislike her?