Stardust Image

After months of waiting and jealously watching blogger after blogger go to see Stardust in the states it finally went on general release in the UK. Yesterday I finally got to see the movie.

And it was wonderful.

Most regular readers would expect me to say that. I am an unashamed Neil Gaiman fan but it’s not always a done deal just because Gaiman is involved. He’s done stuff I don’t think is so good: the Neverwhere TV series sucked like a Hoover in places (to be fair the BBC were at fault for that), so much so it kept me away from his books for many years. Much of his poetry is nowhere near as good as his prose work (“Crazy Hair” not withstanding) and although I love Stardust the novel it is also a noticeably earlier work than his fantastically polished Anansi Boys or even the slightly rougher American Gods.

All of which is a long winded way of trying to establish some credibility for saying the film is wonderful, go and see it. Because it is. From the Vaughn’s slick direction through to Pfeiffer’s delicious performance and Cox’s charmingy naivety to the hilarious cameos from some of Britain’s comedy elite the film quite simply rocks. It wasn’t just me; the entire cinema was into that movie.

Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn have done a great job of marrying what looked like a pretty unfilmable book to film with a great deal of respect and love for the original text. It’s not the book but it definitely is the movie.

Stardust tells the story of young Tristan who, in order to prove himself to his love Victoria, embarks on a quest to bring back a fallen star from the land of Stormhold. Accompanied by an irritated young woman who’s been knocked off her perch, chased by witches and pursued by Princes, Tristan is about to learn that adventure is a lot harder than it sounds in fairy tales.

If you like funny, light hearted films that take you somewhere else for a few hours you’ll love this film whether your five or fifty-five; fantasy fan or not. Go see it.

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