I enjoyed this piece. I wasn't crazy about it, but it was entertaining. Robert De Niro as a "moxie" pirate Captain Shakespeare totally rubbed me the wrong way. Ok, I can see some sort of humor in there, but... no.
I like the fantasy idea of a little, not-so-hidden but forbidden magical town with a deceivingly simple wall and a mystical break in that wall. I thought the story was well-written, and having some fresh new faces as main characters was refreshing. Some of the more tenured actors were fun to see around; in the outtakes, Peter O'Toole asked several times, very politely, almost to a fault, "may I do that scene again?". The best part of the movie, IMHO, was when the Star (Yvain) was approaching the wall that would end her life, as she is utterly heart-broken about loosing her new-found lover. However, I thought it was a bit too immature for her lover (Charlie Cox's "Tristan") to so blithely betray her as he did, and then so quickly grow up in a moment of epiphany and dump the "other girl". Given that the audience is in this ride too, it was too much too fast. But that's me. =) I did enjoy the build up to that scene, the depiction of "True Love", and how that change Yvain.
Tristan's connection to the royal blood is extremely sketchy. When watching the movie, it is not clear at all that his real mom (the slave girl) is a princess. Think about it; why would a princess be a slave, and how would nobody know that? That was mighty unbelievable. And then at the very end of the show, we find out that this slave girl is Una, whom all the dead prince ghosts finally recognize. Whatever.
Like I said, quite entertaining. I enjoyed most of the humor. It felt good when Tristan went back to his home town to face the apple of his eye, and to demonstrate that he had grown up and deserved more.
There is something about Claire Danes (Yvain) that reminds me of Gwyneth Paltrow. Hard to say what it is.
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