Stardust

I know it's been awhile since I've posted a review, but I've had a very eventful and enjoyable summer to keep me busy. Hopefully now things will settle down (and at the same time speed up) so I can get into a more regular routine of posting. The last movie I saw was Stardust, a movie based on the book by Neil Gaiman. This will be a two part review, as after having seen the movie I immediately ordered the book and read it in a single sitting cover to cover.

Stardust hardly had a star studded cast. Certainly there were big name actors in the film though. Michelle Pfieffer as Lamia, one of the Witch Queens of the fantasy world the movie takes place in was fantastic. Claire Danes as Yvaine, the fallen star was both literally and figuratively luminous. Robert Dinero in the much expanded role of Captain Shakespere was hilarious, almost unecessary, but hilarious. Ricky Gervais on the other hand was unnecessary, and that's that. And Peter O'Toole's almost cameo role as the dying King was enjoyable.

The surprise performances that really shine out are the actors who aren't big names. Most notably is the actor who played Tristan Thorn, Charlie Cox. He was really quite good. Starting off as a lovestruck doof, and turning into a reluctant hero who always had it in him seemed to come naturally to Cox, whose transformation from bumbling shopboy to starsaving hero is pulled of fantastically. He really made the character come alive.

There were also great performances from the seven brothers, Mark Strong as Septimus was especially good.

The story is what gets the highest marks from me though, beyond all these great performances and the now standard fancy special effects (which thankfully in this movie were all appropriate, not overly wrought, and sharply presented) , at the heart of this movie was a great story...which leads me to the book.

At 250 pages long, it's not huge. On the Tolkien Scale of book size, I'd say it's maybe a four, and compared to Tolkien it's a million times easier to read. Much of that is because Gaiman doesn't really go into extreme details in his magic world. He doesn't do a whole lot in the way of setting, and zips through a lot that could be expounded upon, but that's really only nitpicking from someone who wishes he had more to read of the story. It tells the tale of the young Dunstan Thorn, who crosses over the Wall and makes love to a young slave girl (totally the girl's choice, I'd say she took more advantage of him than him of her). He ends up with a baby in a basket that she's named Tristran (which I'd say the moviemakers did a good job of renaming Tristan). We see a little of Tristran's home life, and it's established that he is ridiculously in love with Victoria, a girl that is beautiful but totally wrong for him.

Then he ventures beyond Wall into Stormhold in order to find a fallen star to being it back to Victoria. He instantly befriends a local, who helps him get to the Star, who turns out to be a beautiful girl by the name of Yvaine. Everyone is racing to get the Star for different reasons. The sons of the dead king want to get to her at first to claim the jewel she carries, which knocked her from the sky and will also make them king if they get to it. The Witch Lamia wants her to cut out her heart to make her immortal, and soon the princes do as well. But in the middle of that Tristran finds himself protecting her without at first knowing why, he does it by instinct. The situation neatly resolves itself without much violence, much of which is added for the sake of the movie.

I don't think the movie had to add the climax scene at the end, but I can see why they think they needed to. I like that they expanded the role of the pirate captain, and even goofyied him up a little. It made some of Tristran's emotional advances seem a bit more lifelike, and really brought more life to the growing love between him and Yvaine.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was one really out of the blue swear word, and two unnecessarily graphic sex scenes that don't jive at all with the more kid friendly tone of the book. One slight part of one of them might seem useful, but still not really needed. Still I found the book as a whole to be extremely enjoyable, and I was sad when it ended. Likewise I found the movie to be excellent, and more than most movies I have seen in recent years it was an extremely faithful adaptation of a book. It really made it come alive.

Go read the book, then see the movie.