But of course! Nothing says "romance" like a kidnapped injured woman!

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2007)

Comparisons to the Princess Bride are inevitable, but unlike PB this movie does not break the fourth wall. In Princess Bride much of the humour comes from in-jokes with the audience, parody of the genre, and knowing caricature. PB comes off as a sort of audience-participation experience.
Stardust does not come out of the screen to meet the audience, it draws the audience into the world. We watch as a world of wonder unfolds, just a short walk from Victorian England. The story is of a naive village boy's growth into a man, and the lengths he goes to to win true love.
Direction is for the most part smooth and natural and the film flows beautifully apart from the intro (though I think there was a technical problem in the theatre). The real genius here is that the moments of comedy never compromise the drama of the situation. The scenes in the Inn are a great example of tense crisis perfectly interwoven with a number of hilarious sub-plots. This is British humour at its best - humane, warm, unexpected, and present even in the darkest of situations.