Fairy Tale Yarn

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2014)

"Stand By Me" director Rob Reiner helmed William Goldman's adaptation of his novel "The Princess Bride" with Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, and Peter Falk. This imaginative fairy tale about true love is often amusing. A girl falls in love with her servant, but he goes away and is reportedly abducted by pirates. The story is framed by another story about a grandfather who reads a story to his sick grandson (Fred Savage) about a king who wants to marry a girl so he can start a war. Meanwhile, a swordsman (Mandy Patinkin) has spent 20 years searching for the six-fingered gent who slew his father. Cary Elwes and Robin Wright at the star-crossed lovers, and Elwes bears a striking resemblance to Douglas Fairbanks when he dons an outfit in black with a mustache. Billy Crystal has a cameo as a miracle worker. Although it is ostensibly a fairy tale rated PG, "The Princess Bride" has some gruesome scenes, particularly when sadistic Christopher Guest tortures our hero. Worth watching.