Pan's Labyrinth

Guillermo Del Toro’s latest fantasy, Pan’s Labyrinth, is one of the most stunning and imaginative films of the year. It’s a fairy tale that’s as traumatic and harrowing as the grimmest of Grimm stories. Like most great heroines destined to go down the rabbit hole, Ofelia is a young girl with a dark family history and a difficult life. Her father died as a rebel fighter during the battles of the Spanish revolution and as the war nears its end, her mother remarries a cruel Spanish Captain whom Ofelia both loathes and fears. She becomes a prisoner in her own home when her pregnant mother moves to the Captain’s villa and submits Ofelia to his violent temper and ill will for them both (his only real concern is keeping her mother alive long enough to protect his unborn son). It’s a dark and violent set of circumstances for a child to face, and Ofelia, a lover of fairy tales, reacts warmly to discovering she has entered into one herself. According to a faun she meets, she is the princess of a world without pain and suffering who has been reborn in human form and she must only complete three tasks to reclaim her royal throne.

The entire story comes with a well rounded sense of adventure, horror, and drama. The war is not merely a back drop, but actually the core of everything that is going on throughout the film. Del Toro not only creates an astoundingly beautiful and eerie dream world of fairies and fauns, but uses it as a vehicle with which to comment upon the events of the time and the characters of the film. He has made such a pure, vital, and entertaining film that it’s hard to question a single frame. It exists in its own league of uniqueness and creativity amongst many other impressive films this year. More importantly, it truly is an emotional and political work of subtle art that uses story and narrative to both playfully and painfully examine humanity, war, and the innocence of children. It’s a perfectly blended mix of exciting entertainment and undeniable artistry. Del Toro looks to be the sort of rare director that can serve piping hot morals wrapped up in a candy coating without seeming duplicitous or manipulative. He’s not hiding from his ideas. He’s effortlessly injecting them into his colorful adventure stories and fierce moments of messy and gruesome war. Del Toro also has the wonderful gift of making fantasies that hurt with as much realism as the most sophisticated contemporary dramas. From the opening frame, it is clear that Pan’s Labyrinth will not have a happy ending and it shouldn’t. There needs to be consequences and difficulties to really connect an audience with the characters they are seeing. In this film, anything is possible and everyone is as real a person as the one sitting beside you in the theater. It’s an uncompromised and perfectly realized vision of complex characters in an elaborate world of mystery. Pan’s Labyrinth is a very beautiful film about a very ugly time in the world, and it is honestly unlike anything you have ever seen.

Grade: A+