Flashes In The Pan

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2008)

It's one of those continental movies that are so full of 'imagery' and 'symbolism' and 'metaphor'. Mostly, you either like them or you don't.
The special effects within the labyrinth itself are really quite excellent. The civil war scenes in the contemporaneous real world are also no less graphic in their display of violence and suffering.
The whole movie has a surreal feel in a way that perhaps wasn't intended. It's like an amalgam of 'Schindler's List' and 'Jurassic Park', but with the director blown out on LSD. If anything, it seems to have an identity crisis. The lead player who moves between the real world and the labyrinth is a child. That would suggest a juvenile target audience. But the graphic brutality depicted in certain military scenes, not to mention some of the creatures in the labyrinth would hardly be suitable for young viewers. Just because it's arty doesn't mean its fit for kids.
For the most part I found the story formulaic and largely predictable. The ending was particularly twee, with the blood dripping down from the child's hand into the underworld fountain. Very prosaic, and so 'symbolic' of maudlin Spanish sentimentality.
This movie does at least prove that Iberian cinema is catching up with the English-speaking world. Though it clearly has some way to go.