A nice movie with great moments.

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2007)

I have probably seen this film a month ago, and even today, I couldn't believe that I've seen this movie, at the same day than the Oscars. And even to that, It was quite a coincidence that this picture was at the same time, nominated in the category for best foreign film. And the damn thing didn't won, every instant and frame of this movie deserved the Oscar for best foreign picture. Guillaurmo Del Toro deserve the little golden man, and was robbed of it.
Oh well, if you don't have the money to buy the people, who gives out the Oscars, well you don't have much a statuette to begin with, in having it used as a door-stop. And when you got too much Oscars, well you got a decent coat rack, just right there; but I wouldn't think every actor in H'Wood would have competent welding skills.
How can I begin, with this surrealistic and imaginary masterpiece ? It's treatment of the fantastic genre is not like what I've seen before in any picture, and it would be more scarce in Hollywood for that matter, even. Del Toro's masterful film, who is unrelated to Benicio Del Toro by the way, is an ode to Scandinavian and European mythology, in discussing Pan, and every monster contained. The settings are breathtakingly amazing, and what's better, the feeling of Spain is at most of a feeling of Fascist Italy, in the major setting of World War II. It is so much of a take on the fairy tale genre, that it delves into the human psyche. And mostly , it's this kind of fairy- taledness that blends in with horror and thus quite uniquely. Well not that much uniquely, you can also look at The Company of Wolves, by Neil Jordan, made in the 80's.
You cannot find much of a hybrid genre that fairy-tale and horror, as well as Pan's Labyrinth. Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm also works in the same flavor, which in the script mixes in the original authors of the children's books, into the horrors of their own creations. And it's also a perfect blend of horror and comedy, that comes with a keen sens of timing.
The form and the aesthetic of this movie, is more than just simply gorgeous; it is keen, submersive, and aptly done, giving the sense that there was a Spanish Edgar Poe taking the helm of it. And you can really understand why, that the director of photography won the Oscar for Best Photography. The storytelling is simply very unique, which mixes the most abject of cruelty of man against man like a Dario Argento psycho-slasher flick, into the universe of make-believe. After seeing it, it may seem to you that it is very paradoxes, but that is part of the whole intention of Del Toro.
In this paradox, he wants to give the sens of a psycho-slasher attacking the world of fairy-tale, quite explicitly as this one.
When you come to think it ? What would happen if you made a movie that was a fairy tale, and it would've been made by Sam Peckinpah. You would probably think of an action film, mixing with the characters of D&D.