Sometimes I wonder whether I’ll ever stop being cynical. Stardust (the movie, anyway) is filled with a truly idealised sense of romance that, for me, ended up dragging the movie down somewhat. But anyway, I get ahead of myself.

In one of the best movies ever made in the adventure/fantasy genre, Neil Gaiman’s novella comes to life in a wonderful fairytale with an extremely British sense of humour. Starring a wonderfully talented cast including the brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer, an exciting Charlie Cox, the underrated Mark Strong and featuring perfectly cast cameos by Peter O’Toole, Robert De Niro and Ricky Gervais. And of course, the controversially cast Claire Danes who for some reason really appealed to me as the fallen star Yvaine.

It is without a doubt that when a lovingly written screenplay is brought to life by such a distinguished cast, the result can be no less than spectacular and Stardust is all that. Despite its two hour length, the story is still able to comfortably straddle the line between a romantic fairy tale and a hilarious parody of itself throughout. The only times I felt the story failed was during the romantic scenes which, while believable, were simply too wordy or too dry in comparison to the rest of the film. Director Matthew Vaughn himself is reported to have admitted that he was much more in his element with the adventure-fantasy, while romance was something he left to his co-writer Jane Goldman.

I think what ultimately brought the show to life was the wonderful character of Tristan Thorn who, embodied by actor Charlie Cox, really portrays the ultimate geek fantasy. Tristan is the boy who adores the village beauty and is somehow able to win her attention long enough to promise her the ultimate romantic gift - a fallen star. He then goes on this crazy adventure, where he finds someone even better - the star herself. Charlie Cox’s sheer idealism and genuine likeability shines through (pun intended) to the point where the plot “twist” near the end isn’t quite as shocking as the director would have liked.

And oh, I’m so so glad I’m going to catch it again… because I totally missed Sarah Alexander (of Coupling fame) in her role as one of the evil witches.

Stardust is a perfect 10. You’ve got to watch it.

POSTNOTE: It’s hard to believe we waited a year and a half for this… direcow has blogged about it since April last year. Makes me wonder if I’ll actually “forget” about Star Trek coming out next year in all the hype about Iron Man et al.

Naaaaaaah.