Stardust: The Princess Bride With CGI

Mel from the sops and I went to see Stardust last night. It was one of those horrible, drizzly early winter evenings, where the normal throngs of Leicester Square are repalced by people hurrying by in umbrellas. In short, a perfect night for catching a film. Now I know that Mladen didn't like the film, but I am going to say staright off that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There is nothing complicated about the story at all, and in many ways it is the same variation on the Taming-of-the-Shrew-meets- Brothers-Grimm story that we saw in that other favourite film of mine, The Princess Bride. The hero of this film is somewhat less attractive than Cary Elwes, the heroine more gutsy than Princess Buttercup, and the dialogue a little less scintillating, but there are a few gems. We have Robert de Niro playing a (rather hackneyed) camp gay pirate captain who needs to maintain his image of ruthlessness, and Michelle Pfeiffer doing her whole pretty-again-ugly-again routine. She is gorgeous by any standard, but you do wonder whether any of the liver spots are genuine.

The best part of the movie is that it almost exactly matches the mental image I created of the world of Stormhold when I read the book by Neil Gaiman. Of course the book is more subtle, especially towards the end where the Sienna Miller character (oh bad acting thy name art Sienna) is not quite the wanton hussy she is made out to be and is indeed much more sympathetic. I can see why they had to simplify things for the cinema, because it would require another half hour to explain how the passage of time differs between our world and faerie.

Anyway, all in all a worthy film and very enjoyable.