A precise vision and interpretation, one of the best films of the year

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2006)

Spain, 1944. Carmen, just married with the francoist Captain Vidal, moves with her daughter Ophelia to her new husband's house. Unable to adapt to her new life and to that new world, the child discovers the existence of a mysterious labyrinth. Its guardian, the faun Pan, reveals to her she's the missing princess of an enchanted kingdom. To return there and to leave her mortal condition, the unprepared young girl will have to brave and pass 3 dangerous tasks.
Pan's Labyrinth is Guillermo del Toro's 6th movie, and it has many things in common with The Devil's Blackbone. It's the result of a year of work, 4 months of shooting and 6 of post-production, and the director himself called it his most complete film. In this movie, all atrocities committed by the Francoist Captain and by his men proceed in parallel with the little girl's fairy imagination. Ophelia is surrounded by hate, war and uncertainty so she uses the only weapon she has to fight everything: her imagination. She goes through a lot of amazing things and beautiful experiences that make her feel stronger and important in the world. But also through difficult moments full of fear, where she has to resist temptation, because she may lose her innocence and will never be able to dream again, to imagine.
Once again, the main theme is the negativity of reality, and an escapism made thanks to fantasy. But this opposition between real world and the fantasy world is not the same already present in Burton or in Alice's Wonderland. Del Toro, in fact, does not show a world composed of odd castaways who are more human than normal people, and not even a silly, nutty imaginary reality, where nonsense rules. His aim is to offer a precise vision and interpretation of fascism and, generally, of all dictatorships and their logic, seen as a form of degeneration of childhood, a death or heart, of innocence, of imagination. That's why the real monster in the movie is not the Faun or the magic insect, but the captain Vidal. Sergi Lopez is great in interpreting a controlling man, he has been able to draw a character, and indirectly a regime, dominated by coldness, cruelty and arrogance. The 12 years old Ivana Vaquero gives an impressive performance, one of the best ones from a child actor, also the rest of the cast works very well. The make-up is remarkable as are the effects, though they're far from the ones we're used to seeing in many recent American flicks. Very solid and mature, Pan's Labyrinth is definitely one of the best films of the year, an excellent piece of film-making. A must see for any movie lover.
Review written by Tink and Omni for www.boxofficefanatic.com