The Mighty Resurgence of Claire Danes

Lately, as a public service I try to keep my movie reviews over there on the sidebar, so to not completely bore my readers out of their minds with my incoherent thoughts on every damn movie that has the misfortune to flash before my eyes.

That said, I loved Stardust so much that it gets its own full post. It's such a delightful, funny, and infectiously happy movie that I fully demand that everyone I know go see it. (And quickly, as based off of it's first weekend gross I don't expect it to be around in the theatres much longer).

A bare bones review to get you started, as the publicity for it has been so bad there's a good chance you've never even heard of it:

It's your traditional fairy tale turned on its ear (everyone and their brother immediately brings up The Princess Bride, but it's not really a good frame of reference). It's based off the Neil Gaiman novel, and it really shows throughout. A quick character rundown, which fills in the entire plot for you:

Claire Danes is awesome (and lets her hair do most of the emoting for her) as a star that has fallen to Earth, whom everyone wants a piece of. Michelle Pfeiffer digs right into her juicy role as the wicked witch who specifically wants the star's heart (which is apparently tasty, and allows for a kind of immortality). And Charlie Cox (who is an unknown, but is also crazy hot) is the bumblingly earnest young man (a part that is always at the center of Neil Gaiman's stories) who is pitted against all the forces of evil. You also throw in Robert De Niro, stealing the entire damn movie as a misunderstood pirate captain, along with another 15 or so additional colorful characters (and Ian McKellen narrating the whole thing!), just as icing on the cake.

It's pretty standard fare as far as fantasy movies go, but all the stock pieces stack up to one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in ages. Plenty of humor, decent special effects, and some of the sappiest love story bits possible (which really are the best kind). Recommended so hard.

A full review follows below, but it's a bit more spoilerish, so I would ask that you refrain from reading ahead until you've gone and seen it (as you had better be doing right now).

I always enjoy a Neil Gaiman twist on a traditional story, and in this case I am fully on board with his take on a fairy tale. The love storyline is a bit rushed at first, but Danes and Cox make it work. There's a little line near the end about how 'love can look surprisingly a lot like loathing' or similar that is a nicely worded nod to that. And actually, the writing throughout is pretty uniformly well done - there is nothing so effective to me as some dry British writing.

It also helps that I am a complete sap, and will go "Awwwww" at anything cute, so that when Claire Danes actually falls in love and starts shining, I practically melted in my seat.

Also, I know I said it before, but I am completely smitten with Tristan, the main character. I mean, look at the hotness:

Again, this is probably telling more about me than the movie, but how can you not love him?

Entirely out of left field: Robert De Niro's role is completely unexpected, and really, really hilarious. I know it's mostly just playing against type, but it adds some welcome comic relief and really helps the tone of the movie even itself out. It also really helps advance the plot without too much deus ex machina. (Okay maybe a little too much.) But really, I'll take any excuse to put a transvestite pirate captain who catches lightning in a bottle and moonlights as a hairdresser into a movie, so really there's no way to go wrong there.

Overall, it's a wonderful movie, although I think it overreaches a bit with the number of characters it tries to keep up with. But that's hardly a criticism, more like an abundance of riches. You follow along with Tristan and the star, then you've got the witch and her sisters, add in all the prince-brothers, and then the pirate crew, oh and Ricky Gervais in his lovely little cameo, plus the gypsy witch and the mother... you see where I'm going with this. Even though it's 2 hours long, I'm not sure if everyone was necessary to the plot.

Anyways that's just nit-picking, it's a great, great movie that makes me smile just thinking about it. I consider it required viewing for anyone who doesn't hate joy.

You don't hate joy, do you? Go see it.