A movie like Stardust is of the type which gets me both breathlessly excited and murderously apprehensive in just about equal measure. Films like Excalibur, The Dark Crystal, The Princess Bride and especially Labyrinth rank as four of my all-time favorites, and any fantasy spectacular echoing them even slightly automatically raises my eyebrows to their maximum breaking point. 

Claire Danes and Charlie Cox discover magic in Paramount Pictures' Stardust

Thankfully, any sort of unease I might have had is quickly dismissed while watching director Matthew Vaughn’s stunningly wonderful new opus. Sprung from the mind of popular writer Neil Gaiman and co-written by the director and Jane Goldman, this is the kind of movie, when done well, can set the heart aflutter and cause the spirits to soar. Stardust is that fantasy-adventure, and by the time it was over the whole thing made me feel so good not a single Seattle raindrop was able to dent my happiness armor as I slowly walked my way back home.

Just through the forest adjoining the village of Wall lays the magical world of Stormhold. It is a realm young Tristan (Charlie Cox) is warned to stay away from, but when a star plummets from the heavens within its borders the man can’t help but promise to bring back its remnants as a prize for the beautiful (if shallow) Victoria (Sienna Miller), the woman he purports to love.

What he doesn’t know is that in Stormhold, this star isn’t the metallic remains of a celestial body but instead a beautiful flesh and blood woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes) unhappy about being pulled out of her home and not at all excited about being presented as a prize for some random human being. But hanging on Tristan’s arm proves to be fortuitous, the evil witch Lamia (Michelle Pfieffer) and a couple of homicidal princes (Jason Fleming, Mark Strong) also madly searching for her and not caring a single bit for the former star’s welfare.

During the journey back to Wall the couple encounter an eccentric sky pirate named Captain Shakespeare (Robert DeNiro), a fast-talking Black Market shopkeeper (Ricky Gervais) and a sweet-natured slave girl (Kate Magowan) with more in common with the human hero then just the color of their hair. The flight across the mystical countryside also has one other intended side effect, both Tristan and Yvaine discovering that, against their better judgment, they just might be falling in love.

This movie is just wonderful. From the very first moments I was enthralled completely, Ian McKellan’s soothing voice submerging me rapturously within Gaiman and Vaughn’s colorfully exquisite tapestry of sight, sound, excitement and ideas. The film is a kaleidoscope of wonderment, much of it bouncing off of the screen in such robust and magnificently layered detail a person needs to see it twice just to take it all in.

But, better then any of this visual majesty is Vaughn and Goldman’s screenplay. I hesitate to admit I know nothing of Gaiman’s work on which this film is based or of all of the books of his that have given him such a devoted and passionate following. What I do know is that the script for this is a borderline masterpiece, all of its nuances, beats, set-pieces and extravaganzas driven by the characters and not by some need for an eye-popping explosion or an exciting action sequence. The film has both in spades, but much like The Bourne Ultimatum (and its two prequels) the action and adrenaline are organic to the storytelling, character and plot developed with every beat of a galloping hoof or each parry of a clashing sword.

All of the actors are just superb. DeNiro seems to be having a grand old time as the flamboyantly foppish pirate, while Gervais, Magowan, Miller, Fleming and especially Strong make the most of their limited screen time each delivering indelible performances. Both Cox (who is impeccably dashing as Tristan) and Danes (recovering nicely from her dour work in Evening) are fantastic as the heroes, while a magnificently wicked Peter O’Toole starts the movie on such a grand high I was worried it was going to be all down hill from there. Best of all is Pfieffer who continues her summer resurgence begun in Hairspray with a wickedly fabulous bit of evildoing that threatens to steal the entire motion picture. 

There is more imagination, more wonder, more sublime joy and, yes, more magic to be found in Stardust then in just about any other film I’ve seen this year. Sure it gets a little silly now and then, and yes some of it is as broad as a vintage Warner Bros. cartoon but so what? For two hours I was blissfully transported to another time and place, the glory of Gaiman and Vaughn’s tour de force as extraordinary as any I’m likely to experience.

Film Rating:  êêê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  Stardust Theatrical Trailer