Magic again

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2008)

Our life continues and we keep on watching films about magical words, far away from reality but with another reality altogether. I haven't seen all the most recent ones, and I won't mention them. Should we worry about all of this similar tales based on novels? Are we tired? I don't have the answer, but I also don't know how filmmaker keep coming across books and novels and take them to the screen. Maybe writers should stop writing for a while, but then again I never care about finding out if the novel a movie's based on is a recent one. Maybe most of them are old.
Of the films of the type that are not so recent, "The Golden Compass" is one of my favorites, and it presents magical elements in the reality we meet when it begins. In "The Chronichles of Narnia", what divides reality from fantasy is a wardrobe; in the amazing "Bridge to Terabithia" it's this bridge; in "Stardust" (based on a novel by Neil Gaiman) it's a wall.
"Stardust", directed by Matthew Vaughn (in another one of those challenges some directors take by doing something they've never done before) and adapted by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, however, has a difference with the other two films: its hero, Tristan (the natural Charlie Cox), is not a kid. He has 18 years old and possesses the maturity to deal with the destiny prepared for him. From the start (an this is among the film's positive aspects), even before we meet Tristan-when we his father, who also crosses the 'wall' and spends the night with who would be Tristan's mother-we are liberated from the usual surprise kids usually experience when they find magical elements in these films.
Tristan is surprised when he meets Yvaine, (Claire Danes, with a great British accent) a girl who is actually a star, but in his face we don't see the wonder of Lyra when using the golden compass, nor the wonder of Lucy when she finds herself standing in snow after closing the wardrobe, if you know what I mean. Therefore, the technical team isn't very worried about wooing us, or so I believe.
Because magic doesn't feel so magical for the one individual that needs to transmit it to us, the magic in "Stardust" comes from another place: characters and relationships. Unlike some of the constant jumps from one part of the story to another in "The Golden Compass", "Stardust" stays most of the time close to Tristan, focusing on his adventure and the people he meets along the way.
First, there's Yvaine, the hero's love interest, played by Claire Danes with a sweetness we're not used to see in her. She's a serious, independent actress; and what she achieves here shows how wide her range is (even if some of us already knew that). Then there's Lamia, a selfish witch played with mischief by Michelle Pfeiffer; the greedy prince Septimus (Mark Strong), who would do anything to be king; and Captain Shakespeare (a delightful Robert De Niro), who hides a predictable secret.
There are others of course, and they are all developed enough for a movie like this one. I won't tell you which role each of them plays in the story (of which I've mentioned almost nothing), because there's also a certain charm to it. But believe me when I tell you that you'll become so involved with the characters that in the end it will be just like a romantic comedy or, more fit for this matter, a classic love story in which you're waiting for Prince Charming to come and save the Princess; whether with a kiss or by getting rid of everyone in his way.
Don't doubt for any second that this is how it will be, and you'll forget any trespasses.