Your recollection is correct.
The Onion AV club listed Stardust in their list of 20 good novels turned into not so good movies.
It’s kind of weird how opinions are divided on this.
I read the book a couple (few? don’t remember now) years ago, because I am a pretty big Gaiman fan. I thought it was really well-written, and I enjoyed the subtlety of the interactions between the characters.
I liked the movie, and thought it was good - for a movie. They did well moving from one medium to another, and making the necessary changes in structure and delivery to make it work in a different medium. I agree that the ending change was pretty crap, but the rest of it came off at least passably. (De Niro as the pirate captain kind of bothered me, but only because they made his character so hammy after he came out. I mean, really - he can be gay and effeminate without being a limp-wristed running joke. Try telling that to Hollywood, though…)
Am I the only person who was blinking back tears at the end of the movie? I thought it was lovely.
No. I absolutely adored the movie. I think it is my favorite love story ever featured in a movie. The scene where she professes her undying love to the dormouse makes me bawl like a baby, and I think the monologue where she talks about her impressions of human nature is incredibly suiting to the character and the love story. I am usually quite disdainful of what I perceive to be ‘‘clishé Hollywood romances,’’ but this one sold me. Somehow Stardust convinced me that the love between Tristran and Yvainne is as authentic as the love between me and my husband. Call me a big old sap, but Jesus I loved that movie.
Did you read the book? All of that was in the book, but it was much more effective because the book avoided the cheep cliche`.
I read - and loved - the book. Wonderful fairy tale. The movie left out all the fairyland bits of it, but other than that, I really loved it. Both my wife and I walked out of there smiling, happy, charged. Not too many movies do that for me (Bourne Ultimatum was the last one - two in one year was a good ride.)
It seems to me that I’m better than some of my friends at letting a movie be different from the book without feeling it diminishes the original. You should hear the gripes about LoTR!
Yeah, I read it. I started this thread. Because I didn’t find the book to do that effectively at all – it seemed like a completely one-dimensional relationship to me.
The ideas in the book are marvelous, though. I wonder if I’d have thought ‘‘what a novel idea!’’ if I read the book first. Because, of course, having seen the movie, I was already exposed to the plot and characters.
I’m generally like you in this regard. Liked HHGTG movie, for instance. I’ve generally thought that most original books are superior to movies, because literature is my preferred medium. But in this case I have to say, the movie is better.