STARDUST (2007)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, metaphysical*

And here stands yet another "movie that's better than the book." However, the mythicity-rating I gave the book in this review is about the same as the one for this 2007 film. Matthew Vaughan, who directed the film and wrote its script with Jane Goldman, did a fine job of improving on the book in terms of kinetic and dramatic elements. However, the mythicity, the ability to build up a symbolic discourse, is about the same. The film might even score a bit lower, since it had to elide all of Gaiman's learned references to metaphysical conceits like "bonds composed from intangible objects."

The film dispenses with the book's slow, methodical pacing of the book, which on occasion undermined the narrative flow. STARDUST quickly gets to the heart of the conflict: how Tristan (Charlie Cox), a shop-boy in the English village of Wall, falls for local girl Victoria (Sienna Miller) and swears to bring her a token of his devotion: a star that has fallen somewhere in the neighboring lands of Faerie. The movie-script even goes so far as to clarify that Victoria already has a thing for another local swain (a pre-fame Henry Cavill), but Vaughan and Goldman develop this change into an interesting payoff at the conclusion, so it works.

The stripped-down plot dispenses with most of the many magical donor-characters of which I complained in the book-review, and thus gets the romantic leads of Tristan and the incarnate "star" Yvain (Clair Danes) together more quickly. Though Yvain's leg is still broken from her fall to earth, the film only brings up the subject where strictly necessary, in contrast to the way Gaiman let the disability slow down the novel as well as the character. Most importantly, the cat-and-dog relationship of Tristan and Yvain proceeds more logically from initial hostility to mutual caring, thus selling the essential romance-narrative more ably.

Vaughan and Goldman keep the two competing menaces to the lovers roughly the same. The witch-queen, named Lamia and essayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, still wishes to capture Yvain and devour her heart to gain prolonged youth, but this time the witch's two sisters participate more in the action and increase the sense of peril. As for the rival brothers of the Kingdom of Stormhold, they're whittled down even faster than in the novel, so as to place emphasis on the scurrilous Septimus (Mark Strong). However, Vaughan and Goldman bring the two threats together in such a way as to challenge Tristan.

Tristan, rather than remaining a naif, receives some sword-training while he and Yvain travel with the cloud-pirates. In the book this sequence just feels like another example of a convenient donor showing up to render aid to the couple, as well as making it possible for Yvain's leg to heal. The movie-script builds up both the ship's crew and its captain, nugatory presences in the book, into amusing supporting characters. Robert De Niro shines as said captain, who's something of a "gay deceiver," but the writers invest so much good humor into this subplot that it never feels forced, unlike many comparable changes in popular adaptations. For that matter, the film also wrests more humor out of the detail that the ghosts of Septimus's slain brethren have to hang around making wry comments until a true King of Stormhold is found. As far as acting, Strong, Pfeiffer and Cox (later the MCU "Daredevil") take top honors, although all of the performances are better than average, even a minor supporting role for comedian Ricky Gervais.

The conclusion pitting both Tristan and Septimus against Lamia is exemplary if not exceptional, and even Yvain gets to participate slightly in her own rescue. STARDUST the movie is certainly a better metaphenomenal movie than any of the director's efforts on the X-MEN and KINGSMAN franchises, though I'm not sure it would make my list of the hundred-best magical fantasy films, if I ever got around to making such a list.