A true meshing of fantasy and reality.

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2007)

"Beautiful and exhilarating, A fairy tale for grown-ups" so Ebert heaps praise on this visual wonder. Many others praise this film with similar phrase, but I will settle to call this one of the greatest blends of fantasy with realism. Keep the kids at home. This film may have a child at the lead, but it hardly for the eyes of the children.
Guillermo Del Toro has crafted a film that is at times disturbing and others magical, but throughout the setting is never really lost. We are constantly in shadows. The moon is often the source of light and the being that surround us are strangely human. The setting is postwar Spain and the woodlands where a war still wages between gorilla troops and the army lead by a strict captain. Into this world of deception, brutality, and regimen living comes the free spirited Ofelia, and her mother, Carmen who is pregnant. As the story unfolds Del Toro quickly whisks Ofelia into a world of fantasy, but never fully relieves the tension and brutality of the real world. This world is a horrible and made so by the devilish Captain Vidal. There may be a connection between him and the hideously looking faun, but I had to give that idea up. The film isn't what it often seems and the fairy tales not as innocent as the ones normally brought to mind in children's books. This is an adult fairytale, but it still has a heart.
Ofelia is charmingly and disarmingly played by Ivana Baquero. She has the look of an Alice in Wonderland, but with far more at stake than being lost. She plays the full range of emotion expected of any actress and carries it off the innocence of the child to carry the majority of the film. For the rest of the film there is Sergi Lopez and his evil Captain Vidal. While his character isn't given much characterization, it is sufficient to get across the weight of his character who can speak for himself without an introduction. He doesn't like complications and has the sword to put to rest any problems. He is menacing in every scene even until the end. But he is matched in the real world by his own housekeeper Mercedes who is played brilliantly by Maribel Verdu. She may not look it or even at times act it, but she is made of solid stuff. She acts as Ofelia's protector in the real world a role which her mother cannot fully keep as she is pregnant and disabled for the majority of the film.
While the characters and actors root the film in reality the art direction makes for an incredibly foreign feel at times, but the place is never in question as the characters resemble many dangerous and beautiful things of which we are familiar. Still the costumes especially the fauns are amazing. Doug Jones voices the faun and I suspect acts the faun.
The film is true meshing of fantasy and reality. Guillermo Del Toro doesn't relent in story or vision and made the most visual stunning film this year. I loved the story, the look, the sound, and even the feel of this film. In short this film captured my heart and stands as one of the best of this and any year.