Stardust

Perhaps Robert De Niro's fear of being typecast explains his role as a flamboyant cross-dressing pirate in Stardust, the brilliant fantasy film recently released on DVD.

Based on the novella by comic-strip legend Neil Gaiman, Stardust is the best film nobody's ever heard of. Packed with an all-star cast - including Michelle Pfieffer, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais and Peter O'Toole, it's a beautiful and whimsical adventure that easily trumps the likes of Eragon, The Chronicles of Narnia and even the recent Golden Compass.

Surprisingly, though, the film hasn't warranted much attention - which makes discovering it that much more of a treat.

The adventure begins in the English village of Wall, which is flanked by it's mysterious namesake stone wall. Across that wall lies an entirely different world - the land of Stormhold. That's a place of magic, mystery and flying pirate ships - where our hero, Tristan, goes off in search of a fallen star for his beloved Victoria (played by Jude Law's ex, Sienna Miller.)

Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn fit Gaiman's novella into a taut, well written screenplay that avoids all of the cliches and hookiness rife in the fantasy genre. The expected gets turned on it's head and the story unfurls in a surprising and immensely satisfying way.

Of course, you know it's going to have a happy ending - but how that ending will arise keeps you guessing right up until the final moments.

Although fantasy continues to be a popular genre in Hollywood (Narnia will be revisited in 2008 with the movie version of Prince Caspian) Stardust has raised the bar impossibly high in a genre traditionally crowded by mediocrity. It will be a long time before this movie is knocked from it's well deserved position high above the rest of it's rivals.