USCCB’s Review of Stardust

[Editor's note: Even though Stardust is advertised as a fairy tale, parents are warned that this is not a movie for children.]

Stardust (Paramount) is an eventful fairy tale based on a popular book by Neil Gaiman about a star that falls to earth in human form — an ethereal beauty named Yvaine (Claire Danes, looking not unlike Gwyneth Paltrow in a long blonde wig), who's being pursued by, seemingly, every other character in the film.

For starters, there's a (mostly) glamorous witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who ages into an old crone every time she unleashes some magic and who hopes to acquire eternal youth by cutting out Yvaine's heart. She's aided in her conniving by two ghoulish sisters. Then there's Septimus, a murderous prince (Mark Strong), who hopes to secure the throne of his late father (Peter O'Toole) and bumps off his brothers one by one.

And most innocuously, there's Tristan (Charlie Cox), a naive youth who promises Victoria (Sienna Miller), the village maiden he loves, that he'll bring her the falling star they observed plummeting to earth to prove his love. When Tristan meets Yvaine, it's only a matter of time before the two fall in love, especially as Victoria has thus far treated him with cool disinterest. Tristan becomes her protector.

Tristan lives in the walled city of Wall, beyond whose protected boundaries lies a land of magic and danger. Years before, Tristan's father had, in fact, jumped over the wall and had a romantic encounter (not shown) with the chained slave (Kate Magowan) of a witch named Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). Tristan is a result of that brief union.

The pair have many adventures including a run-in with a pirate, Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro, incongruous New York accent and all), who commands a wondrous flying ship, and when not pretending to be a fearsome pirate, still more incongruously, dresses in women's clothes and dances in his cabin to Offenbach's can-can music. Naturally, this is all played for laughs.

Matthew Vaughn directs the multi-strand narrative with conviction, and with great dollops of humor, like the six deceased brothers of Septimus who form a ghostly Greek chorus commenting on Septimus' machinations. That sort of funny business runs pretty much neck and neck with the adventure elements through the entire film (scripted by Vaughn and Jane Goldman), until the final showdown between Tristan and Lamia which, though scarily intense, rates as the film's most exciting sequence. Yvaine is also given a nice speech about the nature of love that's a cut above the usual for this genre.

The big-name cast, including Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais and narrator Ian McKellen, provides additional interest, and Pfeiffer is especially good in her scenery-chewing role.

Though not so much as in, say, Pan's Labyrinth, a true adult fairy tale, many of the story elements here veer more toward adult viewers than the youngsters who might most enjoy this sort of yarn. Though nothing is shown and the scene is brief, for instance, we do see Tristan and Yvaine waking up in the same bed one morning. De Niro's outrageous camping will preclude viewing by youngsters.

The film contains intense action violence, implied premarital sex, a flamboyantly gay character, another born out of wedlock, some innuendo and brief crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults only.

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