Pan's Labyrinth

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2007)

1944, rural Spain. Such is the backdrop for Guillermo del Toro's Labyrinthian effort, a dark and twisted fantasy set beside a dark and twisted reality.
Both fantasy and reality tell the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a pre-teen sent to live on an army base with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) and new stepfather (Sergo López), the latter a brutal and unhinged army captain with a penchant for torture and impulsive murder.
Obsessed with fairy tales, Ofelia creates fantasy in her own mind until the day she comes across a faun (Doug Jones) in a dilapidated stone maze on the base grounds.
Though it may sound like earlier fantasy incarnations such as Wizard of Oz or the similarly titled Labyrinth, this is not a movie for children. The majority of the film focuses on conflict: between the army and the rebels, between the main characters (including Maribel Verdú's stunning performance as sympathetic maid Mercedes), between fantasy and reality. The violence is unflinching, visceral to the point of disturbing, and the dark, overcast tones are almost as unsettling.
Then there's the fantasy. The creatures are fantastical, certainly, but carry with them the sort of darkness one should always associate with the grimmest of fairy tales. Disney this ain't, more a reflection of a mind so consumed and surrounded by atrocity.
But even though the frames are painted with the darkest brush, it's not all doom and gloom. In Ofelia, a sense of innocence is found. Reality is not black and white, rather a state of mind consumed by adulthood.
And if you don't like the symbolic stuff, there's some pretty cool monsters.