Wit and charm win out in "Stardust"

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2008)

Sometimes in cinema, being clever and silly can hide a movie's obvious flaws, or at least make you forget about them. "Stardust" fits right into that category with its colorful cast of characters and witty little British sense of humor. This is not a fantasy film of "Lord of the Rings" proportions and it doesn't try to be (except for an overabundance of transition scenes laden with grandiose music), instead coming more out of "The Princess Bride" vein, only with not as talented acting and not as well-developed characters. Basically, it's enough to wet a fantasy lover's whistle, providing just over two hours of engaging, swashbuckling entertainment.
"Stardust" is classic fantasy plot, delivered to us by well-known fantasy writer Neil Gaman. A boy living in a re-imagined England that is surrounded by fantasy lands is infatuated with a girl and promises her a piece of a fallen shooting star as his commitment to her, only to find an unfathomable adventure waiting for him as he sets out to find it. In fact, he finds stars are actually people and this one is a young woman (Claire Danes) with a bit of an attitude. After this fantasy world is established with a few side plots, one including Michelle Pfiefer as a witch seeking the star to restore her youth, the plot becomes rather predictable.
The dialogue, to be honest, is atrocious in most of this film. The comedic scenes work better, but the ones where the film actually takes the plot seriously are no good and the acting doesn't help out. As much as Pfieffer looks the part, she's not much of an actress, coming across as a laughable villain. Claire Danes gets better as the film progresses, but she just feels like a poor woman's Gwenyth Paltrow and nothing more. Stealing the show, however, in his limited opportunity to do so, is easily Robert DeNiro as a lightning-harvesting sky pirate named Cpt. Shakespeare to whom there is more than meets the eye. He is fantastic and comes at a critical point to save this film from being plain old boring. There are a few other great cameos as well thrown in the mix to cover the otherwise unmemorable acting and half- developed characters.
While "Stardust" bounces in and out of being a film that takes itself seriously as an adventure flick and one that tries to be silly and completely not serious, the overall tone that encompasses both is still plain old "fun." Fun doesn't have to be well-executed or perfectly scripted, it just has to make you smile and forget about that kind of stuff that would normally matter in a serious movie-going experience. In that sense, all the kudos to Matthew Vaughn and this giddy little project of his. If only it had gotten better advertising.