08.29.07
Stardust Thoughts
So, last week I watched Stardust, and I really, really enjoyed it. Sort of at a deep primal level.
The movie is your basic coming-of-age love story adventure. Not really terribly new or exciting, but very well executed. (Some of you may be aware of my belief that well-executed formulas often trump things that are new.)
This movie goes beyond good. It was satisfying. Like some kind of nourishment that I’d almost been missing.
While the movie itself didn’t really make me think, my reaction to it has been. I think that this movie is a prime example of what I understand to be Joseph Campbell’s monomyth (although, having never made it more than a chapter into The Hero With a Thousand Faces, I can’t swear to that.) Suffice to say, I found the story very compelling.
The acting was good, though not remarkable. The special effects were pretty low key. But the movie just made me feel…satisfied.
I did get a bit of intellectual satisfaction out it…Robert De Niro plays a pirate with a dual life. His public face is a blood thirsty pirate of the skies, and his private face is a soft, cuddly, cross dressing flamer. De Niro, obviously normally a tough guy, plays the part with a silly, gracefully playful overstatedness…just short of too much. It’s a great caricature of a character in a movie full of great characters.
(Incidentally, apparently Claire Danes must in some way look a lot like Gwyneth Paltrow, because both myself and someone else initially thought that Yvaine looked like her).
Anyway, I highly recommend the movie. I might even go see it again.
