Are Stars watching Oscar or Oscar watching the Stars?

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2007)

If this film isn't worthy of a few Oscar nominations, we are in for an incredible Fall Season! I had a hard time picking a movie to see yesterday. I had already seen most of the big hype cinema, and some genre's just didn't appeal to me. So I picked Stardust, knowing only what I could read on about the first page of IMDb. A few big names in Supporting Roles, Adventure / Fantasy / Romance Genre, a setting bordering a magical realm, where a young man is going on a quest to prove himself to a pretty woman he pursues.
I was not prepared for the incredible impact of this movie. And still, what was it? There are familiar plot elements from many popular movies and fantasies. Kings, Princes, and Princess, Witches and Magic, Pirates, Ghosts, Transfigurations, Adventure and Love. But is a Story Line I had never heard of, well intertwined with Action, Comedy, Peril and Yearning.
Was it the Stellar Performances of Supporting Roles, like Michelle Pfeiffer, as Lamia, a desperate aging Witch losing her Youth and Beauty? Robert De Niro playing the Pirate Captain Shakespeare turned Fairy Godfather? Sienna Miller as the vain and fickle small town Victoria? Was it the Music that supports every scene, even with adaptation of the familiar Classical "Can Can"? Was it the Role or the Actress, as the Beautiful and Talented Claire Danes, a real "Star" named Yvaine, teaches us the difference between Love and a Crush. Or watching Charlie Cox go from Awkward Young Suitor, to becoming a Man as Tristan?
What I discovered here is something far more important than watching Actors on a Stage, or a Story Line with Action and Plot Elements that can thrill us, Comic Relief that can amuse us. It's not what the Characters Feel and how well the Actors perform it. The measure of a Great Movie, is how it can make the Audience Feel. This Movie brought me along into it's magical kingdom, Anxious in Perils, and Yearning for True Love.