Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.    Today’s post is about the 2007 film Stardust which is based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name.   It tells the story of Tristan Thorn (played by Charlie Cox), a young man raised by his father in a small English town called Wall, who grew up not knowing that his mother was a Faery Princess from Stormhold (the Faery Kingdom just outside of England, just past the Wall that gives the town its name).    Tristan’s mother was being held captive by a witch when his father met her at a market and this led to the conception of Tristan, and the witch would not allow her to keep the baby, so she sent him to be raised by his father in England.

The story jumps forward eighteen years from that point, where we meet Tristan as a young man, living in Victorian England.    He had fallen in love with a young woman named Victoria (played by Sienna Miller), who was also being courted by another man.    It is quite clear that he is not the one she truly loved from the outset of the film, but Tristan is a hopeless romantic, willing to lose his job at a shop and even promise to retrieve a fallen star for her if she would only marry him instead of her other suitor.    She gave him one week, until her birthday, to bring the fallen star back to her!

It is this goal that sets the plot of the film into full swing.    Tristan’s father gave him a note from his mother, who gifted him a magic candle.   He ended up in the crater where the star had fallen, to meet the Star herself, a young Faery Woman named Yviane (played by Claire Danes)!   Tristan is very shocked to learn that the Star he was seeking was a humanoid woman all along.   However, he takes this in stride and decides that he will take Yvaine to meet Victoria.

Alongside the tale of Yvaine and Tristan making their way through the Faeryland of Stormhold, two other plots are going on.    The first is the story of the current King of Stormhold, who is dying, and encouraging his sons to fight to the death for his throne, as this is how the line of succession works in this land.    It is quickly revealed to the audience, through context clues, that Tristan’s mother is the long-lost sister of these feuding Princes.   The other side plot is the story of three witches, ancient magicians who must keep their lives by consuming the hearts of fallen stars!    The lead sister is Lamia, who ate the remaining bit of the previous Star heart and she is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, in a very fun villainous turn.

Each of these plot lines interweave over the course of the film, with the evil witch on the hunt for Yvaine, and the Princes on the hunt for the necklace their father threw into the sky.   It was the necklace that signifies the Sovereignty of Stormhold which knocked Yvaine out of the sky.    The Princes of Stormhold quickly take each other out, with some help from the evil witch Lamia.    Lamia repeatedly gets close to capturing Yvaine but is always thwarted by other forms of magic.     

My favorite sequence of the film is when Yvaine and Tristan get taken in by Sky Pirates, that is Pirates who collect lightning and fly a boat in the sky.   They are led by Robert DiNero who played Captain Shakespeare!    He is one of the most fun characters in the film, an England-loving Pirate who named himself after the great English playwright and enjoyed giving a makeover to Tristan.   He also dressed in drag for his own enjoyment, which is just a very fun addition to a multi-layered and complex character, especially given that this facet of his personality is completely accepted by his crew of Pirates!   I just love it when we have a story that shows love and acceptance amongst characters you would not expect it from.   Captain Shakespeare helps to protect Yvaine from the Princes and Lamia, knowing exactly what she is.   It is also Captain Shakespeare who first saw that Yvaine and Tristan were in love.

The film is high fantasy with Yvaine first confessing her love to Tristan when he was in the form of an adorable mouse!    I love this film for its love story, as Yvaine and Tristan truly fall madly in love with one another over the course of the film.    Tristan even happily goes to tell Victoria that he loves another and runs to Yvaine when he realizes that she cannot cross over into England.   She would turn into a simple rock if she were to go into the mortal world.    This is what leads to Yvaine being captured by Lamia.

Tristan followed Yvaine’s trail and found his mother at the same time.   There is an epic final battle and romantic love confessions that serve to overthrow all of the evildoers!   Tristan finds by the end that he is the last remaining male heir to the Stormhold bloodline, making him the next King.    In a VoiceOver we learn that he and Yvaine ruled for 80 years before using the magic candle to return Yvaine to the stars above with Tristan at her side.   They are still living happily ever after in the sky!

This film is highly underrated with a stellar cast and such a sweet romantic storyline and epic high fantasy plot.    I hope you have enjoyed reading my overview and thoughts on this lovely film.   Do you enjoy this movie?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the film poster.   I found the image on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_stardu.

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Further Watching/Reading

• Stardust (2007)
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman