Stardust

I loved the film. I have to say that i felt it was rather rushed at the start but suddenly about halfway through, from about the time that Robert De Niro appeared on screen it was brilliant.

The story is about hearts, and the quest to make them your own. Three stories, each trying to capture a heart combine to make one of the best movies i've seen in ages. I dont think ive ever walked out of a cinema with a smile as big as the one on my face today.

The first of the three stories concerns Tristan, our hero played by relatively unknown Charlie Cox. He is your average Victorian Geek, with a really bad crush on the village beauty (played by Sienna Miller). He tries everything to win her affections but the bigger, and more handsome bully makes a fool of him. When he learns that the bully is to ask the beauty for her hand in marriage Tristan makes a deal with the beauty that if he can bring her a falling star that they have just seen falling to ground, then she will marry Tristan instead. And so his quest begins.

Meanwhile in the second story, The King of Stormhold is dying, and sends his 5 sons (3 of which are quickly killed by their brothers) on a quest to retrieve a prescious jewell, the one who retrieves the jewell, gets the throne. The marvellous thing about this story is that when the sons die, their ghosts appear in mirrors etc, and commentate on the action leading to many amusing scenes as the movie goes on.

In the final story, an evil old wicked witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) sets out of a quest to get the heart of the falling star, ingestion of which can keep the witch and her two sisters young and beautiful for eternity.

That falling star is called Vain and is played by Claire Danes. It emerges that she fell to earth when the jewell, which the king from story 2 had thrown out of the window hit her and she is very angry. She quickly meets up with Tristan who sets about journeying back to the human village where Tristan lives.

You'll notice i havent mentioned the brilliant Robert De Niro yet and that is because he isnt a main character. But he steals the show with a hillarious turn as a Pirate Captain, who happens to be gay but doesnt want his crew to know. When the crew finally find out, it is the hillarious sequence that ended up with everyone in the cinema laughing out loud.

The story comes from a book by Neil Gaiman, and as i said at the beginning the first half certainly seems to do too much at once, and i have a feeling that much of the book was cut out of that opening half and as a result it feels rushed and the characterisation suffers as a result. But later in the film that all seems worth it as for the final hour or so the story is magnificent, the dialogue witty and the CGI is breathtaking. And it all comes to a terrific and spectacular conclusion that left me with a wonderful feeling inside me.