Movie review: "Stardust" (2007)

In an attempt to impress Victoria (Sienna Miller) aka the prettiest girl in town, Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox) promises to fetch her the star they've just witnessed falling from the sky. Easier said while sipping champers than done. This is 19th-century England, he's a mere shop boy and retrieving said object will mean passing through a magical wall into the forbidden-for-good-reason realm of Stormhold.

The recurring message in this fairytale – which faithfully reproduces Neil Gaiman's 1998 illustrated novella – is "things aren’t what they seem". As when the star turns out to be a radiant young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). She and Tristan are the most made-for-each-other couple since "The Princess Bride"'s Buttercup and Westley and their gallery of friends and fiends is no less wacky...

Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) leads a trio of witches who wanna feed on Yvaine's heavenly heart, Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro) is a lightning-harvesting pirate with a closet full of frilly secrets, Ferdy The Fence (Ricky Gervais) is exactly what he sounds like, and then there are the princes of Stormhold, assassinating each other in a struggle for the throne (the losers forced to spectate as ghosts).

The paths of these and all the characters I didn't choose to describe cross in elegant, unexpected ways that are as horrible, humorous and heroic as a fairytale should be. Like "The Princess Bride", "Stardust" has the comfortable familiarity of a fable, while managing to be entirely new.

Final word: Much more than it first seems.

[Australian cinema release date: September 20]