Death marches on

Rating: 6/10 (14 September 2009)

Do not let the title fool you: this Spanish import is not a traditional fantasy like LABRYNTH, WILLOW or LEGEND. Instead, it is a dark and extremely unpleasant look back at war-ravaged Spain in the 1940s. The young daughter of a brutish army officer begins to imagine herself in a dark realm, in order to escape real life. In her fantasy, she has to achieve a certain number of goals to be crowned queen of this bizarre realm. Meanwhile, the war rages on and her father kills virtually everyone in sight, sometimes sadistically. PAN has overtones of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, if Alice were on acid. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles, but it is pretty easy to follow. The CGI is mind-boggling, but the story is so death-obsessed, it doesn't really matter in the end. PAN is a nihilistic effort that goes much too far to present the horrors of war and the savagery of men. Approach with extreme caution, and no child under 13 should view this. It may be considered a masterpiece by the art-house crowd, but it is not a mainstream film.