Too much Stardust, or not enough?

Stardust, the 2006 fantasy based on a comic book series and novel buy Neil Gaiman, is enjoyable in fits and starts. It feels like someone took a semester-long master class on the generic conventions of fairy tales, then tried to cram everything he learned, whether it fit or not, into a two-hour-plus movie. Inevitably, some of it works and some doesn't. I enjoyed the movie, but not until I gave up looking for narrative coherence and interesting characters. In a fairy-tale England, a long, dilapidated wall separates the human world from the magical realm of Stormhold (nice name, but not a storm in sight). A young man sneaks past the wall, has a one-night stand with a woman, and nine months later gets delivered a child--I assumed with my smattering of folklore knowledge that his "changling" status would be important, but I don't think it is. Anyway, he grows up (into the handsome Charlie Cox), falls in love with an obnoxious blonde beauty (Sienna Miller) and as a gesture of his love, vows to retrieve a falling star which he saw fall behind the wall. The star turns out to be Claire Danes, and other people want her as well; aging witch Michelle Pfeiffer thinks Danes holds the power to make her young again, and the sons of the late King (Peter O'Toole) compete to get hold of a pendant she has which will legitimize a claim to the throne. Cox finds her and, in the process of trying to get her back to his village, falls in love with her.


The plot sounds simple, and it is easy to follow, but I didn't always know why certain things were happening. At one point, a witch turns Cox into a mouse, but there seemed to be no reason for the transformation--Don, who holds a degree in folklore, said rather tersely that she did it because it's a fairy tale and "because she could" (OK…). I also didn't know: 1) why and how a star would take human form; 2) why the star's pendent bestows kingly power; 3) why a single fragile old man guards the wall and why more people didn't try to get out just for the hell of it; 4) why, at the end, humans and Stormholdians are mingling for a coronation ceremony. Robert De Niro puts in an appearance as the leader of a group of sky pirates; he's tough as nails on the outside, but prissy and girly (and a bit of a transvestite) in his private quarters. Many critics have lambasted De Niro for his "sore-thumb" performance; his character definitely doesn't feel organic to the story, but I rather enjoyed his scenes. Other things I liked: 1) as the King's sons die off, they hang around in ghostly form to watch the proceedings; 2) Michelle Pfieffer (above) is by far the most interesting actor (and character) in the movie and was a joy to watch; 3) the ideas of the wall, the village, and the magical town are fun, though details weren't fleshed out as much as I'd have liked; 4) the special effects, sets, and costumes are all top-notch. I also liked Ricky Gervais' cameo and his sparring with De Niro. Danes is also good, and masters her accent quite well. With its hodgepodge of fairy tale conventions, there's almost too much going on, but at the same time, maybe not quite enough in terms of character and plot. An interesting misfire, I'd say.