A Witty Fantasy and a Soaring Romantic Adventure Combine Seamlessly

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2007)

This 2007 Victorian-era fantasy took me by surprise and most pleasantly, as the ads make it sound like it would be a CGI-saturated conglomeration of The Brothers Grimm and The Princess Bride with a little Time Bandits thrown in for good measure. What it turns out to be is an adult fairy tale that doesn't make the mistake of taking itself too seriously. Even though much of the credit belongs to the source, the highly acclaimed 1997 graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, director and co-screenwriter Matthew Vaughan (along with co-writer Jane Goldman) does an impressive job balancing the comically ribald and pitch-black elements into a compelling albeit rather convoluted plot gift-wrapped in a romantic adventure.
The fanciful tale centers on Tristan, a gawky shop boy who is completely smitten with the beauteous Victoria, who is naturally to be engaged to the more dashing Humphrey within the week. Tristan and Victoria strike a deal whereby she will marry him only if he can deliver a falling star to her before Humphrey proposes. In order to do so, Tristan must pass through the sacred wall into the magical kingdom of Stronghold, his birthplace and where his mother may still be held captive. There in a newly formed crater, he finds Yvaine, a star that has fallen out of the firmament against her will. Now vulnerably earthbound, Yvaine also elicits the attention of two unsavory characters - Prince Septimus, Stronghold's remaining heir, who wants a jewel necklace she wears in order to ensure his ascendancy to the throne, and Lamia, a 400-year old witch looking to reclaim her youth and beauty by taking out Yvaine's heart...literally. Their paths criss-cross throughout the film in ways both dazzling and scarifying.
To Vaughan's credit, the movie never feels overwhelmed by the special effects necessary to sustain the fantasy, including airborne galleons, mystical creatures, and all the magical shape transformations due to witchcraft. Moreover, it's the sharp wit of his and Goldman's script and the quicksilver pacing that really keeps the story aloft in an unexpected manner. The casting is close to ideal. As Tristan, the reluctant hero, Charlie Cox elevates a potentially callow role into one with genuine romance and indiscriminate vigor. At first, with her contemporary sensibilities, Claire Danes' ironic take on Yvaine feels a bit off, but she transitions nicely into the heartfelt aspects of her ethereal role. Making her venal Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray look like a suburban amateur by comparison, Michelle Pfeiffer has a grand time playing Lamia switching back and forth from her stunning beauty to decaying harridan, all the while plotting and conniving her way to her end goal. She has obviously entered a phase of her career where she feels comfortable acting malicious without remorse and sending up her incredible looks.
In brief roles, Sienna Miller perfectly captures Victoria's capricious and superficial nature, Rupert Everett epitomizes gallows wit as the splattered Secundus, and Ricky Gervais goes for the funny bone as the opportunistic Ferdy the Fence. Even Peter O'Toole shows up as a dying king (perhaps coincidentally, he played an actor playing a similar part in last year's Venus), and Ian McKellan provides the stentorian narration. However, the real scene stealer is Robert DeNiro, doing little to hide his Bronx accent, as Captain Shakespeare, who maintains a surprising dual identity to keep up appearances for his crew. It's hardly his finest hour, but he is far more amusing here than in Meet The Fockers. The technical aspects of this sprawling, imaginative world are first-rate, in particular, Gavin Bocquet's meticulous production design (he was responsible for the design of the latest Star Wars trilogy) and Ben Davis's dazzling cinematography. This is superb entertainment for fans of this genre.