A fairytale of storytelling

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2007)

A month has passed since I saw this film and it still leaves a lasting impression on my mind. Every aspect of this film fits into place to leave a jigsaw of perfection that is built up from the first scene. The story moves at exactly the right pace, slow at first whilst characters are built and emotional responses to situations mark out the variety of human personalities. Captain Vidal is set out initially as the evil and powerful bad guy as set out in the first and second acts. Nevertheless, he is shown as vulnerable through delusion in the third part of this film. The virtuous show their imperfect sides too as witnessed by Ofelia's temptation in an almost biblical scene. Ofelia being the vision of sweetness whose selfish side almost results in her almost certain doom. The supporting characters battle with their respective turmoil's of loyalty versus fear. The storytelling concentrates on the variety of emotions displayed by all humans - no-one is truly good or evil, just differing shades of grey in-between. The acting really is the stuff of professionals who do what they do for the love of the craft and puts the high-paid Hollywood set to shame. As far as special effects are concerned, this is a relatively low budget film by today's standard. The effects are supplemental to the movie, rather than overbearing. Del Toro uses the funds and tools at his disposal in a masterful if under-stated way. You'll be left remembering the fantastic Faun and Pale Man far longer than anything seen in Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. It really is a case of less is the new more in this picture. Scenery is suitably bleak and fantastical by turn depending on the scene. In the real world, we see an overbearing forestry location of Spain that is overlooked by visitors to the country Finally, the score is helpfully underplayed - I'm not a huge critic of music one way or the other in a film, but the music in this film contributes hugely to each scene and never oversteps the mark of being overbearing. In a world where action film sequels and brain-dead rom-coms rule, this film is a shining beacon of originality and passion for the art of film-making for the masses. It's a crying shame that this film has received such deserved excellent critical acclaim but will probably be sadly over looked by the majority of film-goers and award givers alike. Nevertheless, I loved this film and have recommended it to everyone I know as my film of the year for 2006.