A dark fantasy tale...

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2007)

Writer/Director Guillermo Del Toro is one of the many Mexican directors that have a great sense of story telling in a movie. Pan's Labyrinth is one of the few films these days that have originality.
The story takes place in post-Spanish-war-Spain is about a girl named Ofelia whose passion is the world of fantasy. She lives, breathes and eats it. She goes with her mother to live with her Stepfather the vicious Captain Vidal who will kill anyone who questions him and his will. She has no choice to live with him as her mother is carrying his child. Vidal also despises Ofelia's fairy tales as they have no point and are unintelligent. Ofelia's only other friend in the place is the housemaid Mercedes who is a spy for the guerrillas. Ofelia is dragged one night to a labyrinth which is inhabited by a faun named Pan. He tells her that she is a princess and to gain her throne she must accomplish three tasks before the full moon.
Meanwhile Vidal continues to try and hunt down the guerrillas and as his madness grows we see just how much of a monster he can be. It becomes clear that Ofelia's only escape is through her fantasy world and her tasks. To try and regrow a tree by putting stones in a toads mouth. To get an object from the realm of the pale man who eats children, and another that I must not spoil.
Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing fairy tale that is not like Del Toro, yet this one shows how much creativity and vision in his movies that he has. Some may argue that the ending is too tragic, while others would say it's happy. I like to say it's both as Pan's Labyrinth makes you think what is real and what isn't.
Pan's Labyrinth 10/10