Stardust

Remember back in the 80's when the only good fantasy films were few and far between. "The Princess Bride"... "Legend"... "Willow"...

Remember back in the 90's when there was... Okay, nothing!

Then came 2001, and "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" each made, like, a zillion dollars. Now there's more fantasy than you can shake a stick at. While waiting for "Stardust" to begin, I saw five trailers, each for some kind of magical film: "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium", "The Golden Compass", "The Spiderwick Chronicles", "The Dark is Rising" and "Beowulf". If any of those is as good as "Stardust" I'll be impressed.

I didn't title this review with my "Blockbuster" banner because, it seems, there wasn't that much anticipation about the film. It's got a couple of older stars (Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer) and a couple of newer, sort of indie stars (Claire Danes and Ricky Gervais) and -- to me, anyway -- a couple of complete unknowns (Charlie Cox and Mark Strong). The special effects are fine, nothing groundbreaking. But I didn't mind.

The story is wonderful. Tristan (Cox) is a young shop boy who has fallen for the town beauty (Sienna Miller) and vows to find a recently fallen star to win her hand in marriage. The star is not a lump of rock, but Claire Danes in full-on willowly blonde mode, playing Yvaine. That's the core of the story, one of the more extravagantly odd meet-cutes in romantic comedy history. And that's what this film really is: a romance.

Of course, there's also a villanous septet of brothers vying for the throne of Stormhold, a trio of evil witches who plan to vivisect Yvaine, a cross-dressing pirate who sails the skies in search of lightning, a smooth talking trader and a long lost mother. And a goat. Can't forget the goat.

To me, the film felt like a cross between "The Princess Bride" with its tongue in cheek fantasy world, and "The Fifth Element" with its magical girl McGuffin. The set pieces and story convolutions and characters are endlessly fascinating. (Tristan's sword battle with a slightly off Septimus is a highlight. I won't ruin it with any details.)

But it's Danes and Cox who make the whole movie really sing, as we watch them fall in love amidst such humorously dire circumstances. I hope this movie gets the cult -- or even beyond cult -- following that it deserves.