Excellent fantasy

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2011)

Pan's Labyrinth-****- A Masterpiece- Directed by: Guillermo del Toro. Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Starring: Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Manolo Sol, Roger Casamajor.
When the term fantasy film comes to mind, one normally thinks of Lord of the Rings or Alice in Wonderland. What does not come to mind is a masterpiece made for art house viewings. Yet that is exactly what this film represents, a contradiction to Hollywood fantasy. The story covers a young girl (Baquero) who finds peace and security in a fantasy world where she must prove herself as queen of. However, reality rears its ugly head and forces Baquero into the sinister world of fascist Spain in 1944 under the wrath of her violent step-father (Lopez).
What gives this art house film by Guillermo del Toro its brilliance is how it combines a brutally violent reality with a truly beautiful fantasy. The two do not play off each other and that is where del Toro's talent as a filmmaker comes in. He makes sure the two contradicting parts of the story do not play against each other and make the movie uneven, instead the two work together as a consistent whole. This is where most current Hollywood filmmakers go wrong is their inability to bring even the slightest of contradicting story elements together.
The bleakness of reality is shockingly portrayed through Lopez's character who murders people for his own satisfaction. The innocence of the fantasy is portrayed through Baquero's innocent character who simply wants a world of love around her. del Toro understands that a masterpiece of art does not just have one level, it has multiple levels of thought process in order to completely understand it. He uses characters to convey the symbolism of both of his worlds he has created and he also questions us in the fact that the fantasy world actually exists.
Is the fantasy world just an imaginary place or a real place discovered by a young girl? He leaves those questions up to us. He tells his story and then leaves the rest for us to reflect on. That is what makes this a work of art, not a work of commercial filmmaking. It's beautiful and horrifying, it's lovely and hateful, it's a masterpiece.