Cross-Dressing Air Pirate (#69: Stardust)

#69: Stardust

That's all you need to say, right? This movie features Robert DeNiro as the cross-dressing Captain of a crew of air pirates. Sold!

Adapted from a novel by Neil Gaiman - who I'd call the reigning king of modern fantasy if it weren't for George R.R. Martin and his pesky Game of Thrones* - Stardust is the type of fantasy film I would have loved as a kid. It tells a light story shadowed with enough sharp edges and dark wit to entertain a child viewer but to give him/her the sense of the larger and deeper mysteries of adulthood. (See also: Neverending Story; Labyrinth; Jim Henson's Storyteller series).

To describe the plot in too much detail would take too long, spoil the movie, and sound ridiculous. Long story short: In England, there's a town called Wall which sits on the edge of our world and the world of Stormhold. Stardust follows the ventures of the half-breed son of Wall and Stormhold, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) (a/k/a the Irish guy who had an affair with Margaret on Boardwalk Empire), as he tries to find his mum in Stormhold, catch a fallen Star (Claire Danes, fine, but miscast), and evade the machinations of an evil witch (Michelle Pfeiffer, excellent). Oh, yes, did I mention that Robert DeNiro plays Captain Shakespeare, the cosmopolitan pilot of a dirigible-boat full of air pirates that assist Tristan in his quest? Even that brief summary sounds ridiculous.

And it is! In a way fantasy films should be. Whimsical, heroic, and, above all, deeply strange.

I don't want to oversell it. This isn't a classic. While Gaiman's world-building is effective and charming and the performances are by and large winning, the direction, art direction, and effects aren't quite up to snuff. It feels like a very good TV movie - solid and entertaining but just a step away from big screen greatness. But it entertains and I look forward to sharing it with the Li'l ReViewing Habits when they're old enough that Michelle Pfeiffer gutting cats to read their entrails won't scare the living daylights out of them. What else can one ask for in a modern fantasy film?

Oh, yes, that.

FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER

NEXT UP: ?????

*Gaiman's run at the helm of The Sandman for DC Comics is appropriately legendary. He is also the writer behind Coraline, Neverwhere, and much, much, more.