Despite a weak script, Charlie Cox and Claire Danes do their best to lend some magic to Stardust

Stardust

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From his work on the groundbreaking Sandman comic series to bestselling novels and short fiction for adults and children, Neil Gaiman is a writer whose cachet has built a devoted following for his fantasy offerings. Now, with a film adaptation of his illustrated novel, Stardust, by sophomore director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) and first-time screenwriter Jane Goldman, a new audience has a chance to taste Gaimain’s fantastic flair. Saddled with familiar Hollywood tropes, however, the film loses something in the translation while gaining appeal beyond those already committed.
    On screen, Stardust is an action-comedy with the kind of broad appeal that makes it an accessible anomaly in the fantasy genre. Gaiman himself says that he set out to create a novel that predated marginalized genre fiction, and the film follows in the footsteps of its source material. Forget sex-fuelled vampires or elves with wispy blond hair, Stardust is accessible fantasy. It’s got belly laughs, action scenes and even a Victorian jock villain who taunts the film’s sensitive protagonist, Tristan (Charlie Cox).
    Taking its cue from pre-Tolkien English writers, Stardust is a picaresque fairytale that takes its reluctant protagonist over a magical wall between a Victorian England village and a magical realm called Stormhold. Hoping to win the love of an unattainable beauty named Victoria (Sienna Miller), Tristan promises to leave the village in search of a fallen star — a much-sought-after commodity that turns out to be a human avatar named Yvaine (Claire Danes).
    But where the novel aims to find a more accessible fantasy schema in the past, the film is more concerned with finding accessibility in familiar, contemporary Hollywood conventions. Victoria becomes an archetypal snob so obviously wrong for Tristan that it’s no surprise she prefers the company of an obnoxious jock-styled suitor named Humphrey (Henry Cavill) who (har har!) turns out to be a bit light in the loafers.
    Gay panic is also instigated in ample measure with the addition of Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), a lisping hairstylist/etiquette coach/transvestite pirate captain trying his damnedest to act like a butch tough man. Throw in an obligatory montage sequence that trains Tristan in dance and swordplay in a matter of days, a series of generic action scenes and a hefty dose of admittedly solid slapstick and it’s no surprise that the film is imminently accessible.
    For better or for worse, Stardust’s film treatment means more laughs and increased familiarity — silly comedy that’s more Dumb & Dumber than Dungeons & Dragons. In reimagining a modern fairytale as a modern film, this adaptation of Gaiman’s work is taking broad aim at the unconverted.