Visually and intellectually stimulating.

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2007)

Guillermo Del Toro's previous work was always a cut above and incredibly distinctive, so much that he could potentially become an adjective, although Tim Burtonesque is slightly easier to say than Guillermo Del Toroesque. From Cronos to The Devils Backbone to Blade 2 and more recently Hellboy, Del Toro has invited the viewer into his world of machinery and monsters. No more so than Pan's Labyrinth (more literally The Labyrinth of the Faun) in which he creates some of the most tantalisingly sumptuous images he's put to celluloid so far. In post Civil War Spain, 1944, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother Carmen go to live with her sadistic stepfather Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez). While there she meets The Faun (Doug Jones) who tells her that she may be a lost Princess and she must complete several tasks in order to prove her identity. She agrees readily partly out of childish curiosity and partly to escape the horrors of her real world life.
From the very first frame, this film grabs you. It's absorbing to the point of being glued to the screen despite several moments which may make you want to look away. The Pale man is one of the creepiest creature inventions of recent years and Del Toro's other monsters are so fully realised and imaginative that it's hard not to be awed. In a film like Blade 2, these creations are cool. In Pan's Labyrinth, they are strangely beautiful and arresting. The acting is superb all around, Sergi Lopez more evil and twisted than anything in Ofelia's world, bearing many similarities to Ralph Feinnes' Amon Goeth and Maribel Verdu, here playing a very different role to Luisa in Y tu mamá también is wonderfully understated until her final breaking point. Newcomer Ivana Baquero acts all the recent child actors off the screen in her quietly confident performance, slowly coming of age before our eyes. The greatest thing about the fantasy of this film is that nothing is explained, just as a fairy tale would be. The habit of needing to explain everything in Hollywood films kills the wonder of the fantasy and here, Del Toro simply presents everything as 'that's the way it is.' Why do I need to go and feed these stones to a toad in a tree? That's the way it is. In the same way, some of the extreme violence in the film is presented in a brutal, shocking way to convey more or less the same message. That's the way it is.
There are parallels made between the real world and the fantasy world that are constantly revealing themselves throughout the film and almost act like easter eggs on subsequent viewings. This film was well thought through and carefully constructed and it shows through with all the details from the set designs, to the colour schemes to Guillermo Navarro's beautiful cinematography. The icing on the cake is the haunting score by Javier Navarette, guaranteed to have you humming it well after the credits roll. As far as the ending, Del Toro explains it as he sees it in interviews, but the great thing about a fairy tale is that it's whatever you want it to be and that's a rich film experience. Pan's Labyrinth is a dazzling, mesmerising piece of work that will become something of a classic in the future.