Starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

StudioCanal, in cinemas now

When Enn and his friends crash an after-party in punk era Croydon they meet a party of alien travellers who are learning about their latest destination.

When I first read that Neil Gaiman’s short story (it’s under 20 pages long) from his 2006 collection Fragile Things was being adapted into a full-length film, I was somewhat surprised. The Hugo Award-nominated and Locus Award-winning story at first glance feels more suited to the author’s Likely Stories anthology show in terms of its length and ambitions, and yet director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) has taken the story as a starting point and taken it into fantastical new directions in a screenplay he co-wrote with Philippa Goslett.

Gaiman’s story really is just the springboard and you can spot the point where it ends and the new material begins, taking it to a variation of Romeo and Juliet with one of the ‘star-crossed lovers’ having actually crossed the stars this time. The Montagues and Capulets are the punks and the aliens this time, the conflict being an anarchist mentality versus flower power.

Elle Fanning and Alex Sharp are adorable as the central couple, the latter‘s culture clash experiences being the butt of some of the humour. Ruth Wilson and Matt Lucas also appear as aliens from different factions, both sporting the brightly-coloured latex and vinyl bondage-style outfits that the visitors have chosen for their journey. Less successful for me is Nicole Kidman’s spiky (quite literally) Queen Boadicea, a Vivienne Westwood meets Labyrinth’s David Bowie creation who never really convinces with her mockney accent.

At times I was reminded of Julien Temple’s gaudy Earth Girls are Easy (not the strongest of compliments) and then I’d be won over by the movie’s big ideas before something jarred. Can a film have too many ideas? Yes, if they aren’t fully developed and leave the audience scratching their collective heads. But I’m all for a movie stretching its ambitions beyond its budget and other constraints.

Verdict: A cult film in the making that will find its niche audience, but is just too ‘out there’ for the mainstream. Sweet, fun and with something to say, the gaudy, messy wrapper might be too much of a distraction for some, but my first desire was to watch it again, so that’s surely a success. 7/10

Nick Joy

Read our interview with John Cameron Mitchell here