Stardust

Yvaine & Tristan

In a rare move, I went to see a movie by one of my favorite authors (Neil Gaiman) although I had not yet read the book (in my defense it was originally a graphic novel and I just haven't read many books in that genre). Maybe that was okay, because I absolutely loved the movie. It's good not to feel frustrated about cut scenes or ending changes (which I understand happened in this case), or characters not being represented like I thought they should.

I will go get the book, but for now I'll continue to think about Stardust the movie, which my husband and I went to see today (after much hemming and hawing on his part because he doesn't really like movie theaters). What a beautiful, beautiful, sweet, funny, exciting, well-done film.

Clare Danes played Yvaine, a fallen star. Charlie Cox plays Tristan, a boy who is on a trek to find the star and bring back the star to a local girl who he wants to marry--although he doesn't realize that the star is actually a woman. And Michelle Pfeiffer--oh I have always loved her and in this she was magnificent--played a perfectly beautiful and perfectly hideous evil witch. De Niro played Captain Shakespeare, a closeted gay pirate. Absolutely brilliant performance.

One of the key witchy things that happens in the movie is a few scenes of divination by looking at entrails. Icky, but I thought it interesting because in ancient times, divination through entrails after a ritual sacrifice was very common. I have several scenes in my novel about divination along these lines. If the liver was a certain shape or color it meant something. If there were deformed or missing organs it might mean another. In the case of Stardust, the entrails told the witches where to find the star.

Overall this is an enchanting fairytale that kids and adults alike will love for many years to come. Definitely will be snatching this up on DVD when it comes out!