Stardust - Review

In Stardust a young man named Tristran must save a woman who is actually a fallen star from an evil witch in a goat powered cart. Along the way he gets help from unicorns, gay pirates, and oh yeah he may just be a long lost prince. Even for a fantasy movie, Stardust is made of pretty silly stuff. In a way it’s a throwback to what fantasy movies were before Peter Jackson, reminiscent of now rather dated work like Willow, Legend, or The Dark Crystal. But inspired directing from Matthew Vaughn and a wry sense of humor saves the movie’s oh-so-80s story from being an out of time curiosity and makes it a completely unique fantasy film unlike any of the other witches and wizards fare flooding theaters.

Matthew Vaughn by the way, was the guy who infamously wrote an X-Men 3 script in seven days and was slated to direct the third mutant film before being replaced by playboy director Brett Ratner. If only Fox had kept him, X-Men 3 might not have been such a disaster. Unlike Ratner, Vaughn has talent and style to spare and it’s all on display in Stardust. He never settles for doing things the easy way, and the movie is filled with glowing, gorgeous wide shots and massive, world-spanning pans in which his camera zooms from a tiny village across thousands of miles, through a castle and into a keyhole. Vaughn’s take on the universe first created by Neil Gaiman in book form is absolutely breathtaking.

His cast is stacked with big names. The movie’s lead is the only face in it you won’t recognize. Charlie Cox plays Tristran, a shop boy from our world who crosses a magical wall and finds himself ensnared in a world of magic and intrigue. He’s instantly likable, if a little dopey, and plays the part of an adventurous romantic out to win the heart of the woman he loves admirably. Claire Danes plays one of the film’s female leads, a fallen star named Yvaine, and she works as a sassy, ethereal beauty. But Robert DeNiro as an air pirate is just bizarre. The character is funny and likable, but only because he’s written that way not because of anything DeNiro is doing. DeNiro, seems rather lost, as if he’s standing on set in front of a green screen unable to figure out which way he’s supposed to be facing. Sienna Miller is a waste of space as Tristran’s lady love Victoria, but thankfully she’s barely in the film. Michelle Pfeiffer seems to be having a blast as the rapidly aging head witch who harries Tristran on his trip.

Somewhat confusing is Ian McKellan serving as the movie’s narrator. Don’t get me wrong, McKellan’s great. There is no better narrator than Ian McKellan, not even Morgan Freeman. But why does the movie have an omniscient narrator at all? It does give the film a nice dreamlike, storybook quality; but it’s almost as if Vaughn felt Gaiman’s story too bizarre to be understood by audiences without someone there to offer explanations. Actually, he may have been right.

Stardust is really weird, but knows it and seems to have no problem poking fun at itself and the fantasy genre for just how strange it all is. That wickedly sarcastic sense of fun, more than anything, is what makes Stardust such an entertaining success. It’s unlikely to become the next big fantasy franchise, but it’s a great way to spend a Friday night. Gaiman’s world looks good on screen, and it’s impossible not to enjoy spending time with it.

Evening - Review

Evening is, to put it mildly, not an easy movie to sell to men. It’s told from the perspective of Ann (Vanessa Redgrave), a woman on her deathbed recalling a pivotal moment in her life 50 years earlier. When she randomly blurts out, “Where’s Harris?” her grown daughters (Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson) have no idea what she is talking about. And there’s no reason they would--in her near-death state of delirium, she is letting them in on a secret.

If ever there were a movie custom-made for women, Evening would fit the bill. It sports a hefty, female-friendly bag of tricks: mother-daughter strained dynamics, wilted romances from years past, deflated dreams, life-changing memories and even a few long walks on the beach. There’s enough sentimentality here to coat a football field, but it excels at what it does and will likely find some weepy-loving fans among the Terms of Endearment/Notebook loyalists.

Evening, the second feature by acclaimed cinematographer-turned-director Lajos Koltai (Fateless), is based on the book by Susan Minot, who wrote the screenplay with Michael Cunningham (The Hours). The story jumps from the present, where Ann is joined by family and a doting night nurse (Eileen Atkins) for her final moments, to the past, where she spends a weekend with close friends for an impending wedding. Young Ann is played by Claire Danes (who looks nothing like a mini Redgrave, but we’ll let that one slide) with an air of sophisticated whimsy.

Her best friend Lila (Mamie Gummer, a.k.a. Meryl Streep’s real life daughter) is set to marry a man she doesn’t much care about, mainly because she can’t be with the one she wants, Harris (Patrick Wilson). He’s a handsome, semi-unattainable doctor that wins everyone over, despite the fact that he’s as exciting as a bowl of Muesli. Even Ann is wooed, much to the dismay of Lila’s brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy), an unstable, vivacious guy who’s been holding onto feelings--and a crusty old note she passed him years ago--for a frightening span of time. Dancy is achingly good at playing this beautiful disaster.

At its core, Evening is about regret and longing. Ann has lived her entire life, with a few failed marriages along the way, and has never forgotten about this dreamy man she barely knew before a tragedy sent them in opposite directions. Was Harris truly all that wonderful? Not really, and that’s one way that Evening gets it right--hindsight can be a nasty mind trick, up to the last breath.

Where Evening gets it wrong is in trying to squeeze too many gifted female actresses into this overstuffed drawer. Collette and Richardson aren’t developed enough to make any real impact, Atkins is criminally underused and Glenn Close appears in a throwaway part as the bride’s mom. The smallest role with the biggest impact is played by (who else?) Streep, as the grown-up Lila. There’s a scene between her and Redgrave, both powerhouse talents, which should be screened in acting classes to teach inquiring minds how it’s really done.

Even with its lack of subtlety, and occasional flair for the melodramatic, Evening is a solid family drama that is hard to dismiss. The incredible all-around acting and sense of bittersweet nostalgia help make the movie seem stronger than it actually is. Don’t be surprised if, much like the girls flocking to Harris, you fall prey to its charms, leaving caution (and arguably logic) out to dry.