"Stardust"

Aug. 10, 2007 | There are people who love fantasy movies as a genre, and people who end up loving fantasy movies in spite of themselves: I know more than one person who, turned off by the intricate imagined universe of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels (as well as, perhaps, by the clubbiness of all those Tolkien devotees), approached Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies with caution, only to fall head over heels for them.

"Stardust," directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, is a movie for those who are more likely to fall into the latter category, who approach fantasy movies with their magic Teflon shields cautiously raised. The story of a young man who sets out to prove his devotion to the woman he loves by stealing a fallen star, "Stardust" is imaginative and intricate, but it's also joyfully casual, maybe to the point of being a little messy in places. But even its flaws work in its favor: "Stardust" feels organic, not mechanized, which is fitting for a story with one foot in the real world and the other in an imaginary one. And although "Stardust" may have cost money, it doesn't look like money. That's high praise in a world where even a modest movie budget is often enough to feed a whole village for a year. This is a picture that looks to have been made with pleasure, for our pleasure, as opposed to something we're supposed to be impressed by.

"Stardust" opens in a small, sleepy English country town called Wall, so named because only a low stone wall separates it from an otherworldly domain known as Stormhold. A seemingly ordinary young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) -- he doesn't know he's of noble birth, although we do -- has fallen in love with the prettiest girl in Wall, the flirtatious, teasing Victoria (Sienna Miller). She likes Tristan well enough, although she's far more interested in Humphrey (Henry Cavill), her stalwart, handsome dud of a suitor, who, she tells Tristan brightly, has traveled afar to buy her an engagement ring. (In one of the movie's greatest lines, she proclaims, "I can't exactly say no, after he's gone all the way to Ipswich!")

But even though Victoria has already picked out a husband, she's intrigued by Tristan's counteroffer: Just after the two have spotted a falling star, Tristan impulsively offers to fetch one and bring it in time for her birthday, which is just a few days away. We can tell from the gleam in Victoria's eyes that that sure beats a ring from Ipswich, and so Tristan heads over the wall of Wall -- it's guarded by a crotchety old fellow (David Kelly) who isn't supposed to let anyone pass, although he's always conveniently turning his back -- to capture the star that will win his true love's heart.

But Tristan has competition in that department: Everyone wants the fallen star, who is actually a lovely young woman. Yvaine (Claire Danes) is not only beautiful (when she first falls to earth, she lies, stunned and unconscious, in the center of a crater, and both her golden hair and her satiny gown are still throwing off glimmers of light); her heart is the key to eternal youth, and a trio of witch sisters led by the ruthless Lamia (a simmering, wicked Michelle Pfeiffer) hope to capture Yvaine so they can cut it out of her and devour it. What's more, Yvaine is the keeper of a necklace that will determine the true king of Stormhold. The old king (played, in a small, gleaming, crotchety performance by Peter O'Toole) has just kicked the bucket, and his three remaining sons contend viciously for the throne. (The other four, one of whom is played by a deliciously nasty Rupert Everett, have already killed one another off; these pale, dead princes look down from their purgatorial perch and comment on the action, a ghoulish Greek chorus.)

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