Stardust film review

certificate_PG

STARDUST

Any film featuring Robert DeNiro as a transvestite sky pirate preening to the Can Can is certifiably unconventional, and Stardust is definitely that. An adult fantasy of the mythical variety (as opposed to the pornographic), it strikes an original tone. Add a pinch of The Chronicles of Narnia, a soupcon of The Witches of Eastwick and a hint of Indiana Jones, stir for just over two hours and the outcome is an amusing, eccentric romantic adventure that, although entertaining, falls just shy of wholehearted success.

Directed with verve, wit and invention by Matthew Vaughn, who proved his ability in a very different style with the excellent Layer Cake, Stardust is based on Neil Gaiman's novel with a screenplay by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. The offbeat fairy tale is set in strange worlds with even stranger characters. Possessed of a campy sensibility, it incorporates as many of the conventions of its fantasy genre as it breaks. To see DeNiro as a closet queen is as disquieting as seeing Michelle Pfeiffer looking like a haggard one.

A story that utilizes the well-worn device of a portal between the real world and a mystical one is hardly original. It's what transpires in those contrasting realms that is key to Stardust's appeal. One is the English town of Wall, so named because of the drystone wall that protects it from the unknown mysteries that lurk beyond its permiter. The town is home to the young Dunstan Thorn (Ben Barnes), whose curiosity prompts him to breach the wall and visit the fantastical kingdom of Stormhold where he is seduced by a woman (Kate Magowan) chained to her gypsy caravan. Nine months after Dunstan returns home, a baby boy is left at his door. The young boy, Tristran (Charlie Cox), grows up to fall in love with the town beauty, Victoria (Sienna Miller). To win her hand, he promises her the falling star that lands beyond the wall. His quest leads him to a crater where he finds Yvaine (Claire Danes), the beautiful embodiment of the fallen star.