Charming, Tragic, Beautifully-Made Fable Of Lonely Spanish Girl's Escapist Fantasies

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2007)

Ofelia is a young girl sent to live at her stepfather's outpost in the Spanish countryside in 1944. She finds a labyrinth in the woods, where a strange creature tells her she is a princess who must complete three tasks to inherit her kingdom. Is this fantasy real, or merely an escape from the loneliness and isolation of her circumstances ?
The best word to describe this movie is simply beautiful. The story (which my synopsis does not begin to cover) is lovingly crafted, the performances are rich and sincere, the art design and photography are gorgeous and the melancholy atmosphere of wonderment and heartbreak is rich and deeply moving. I didn't enjoy it perhaps as much as I could, purely because the tragedy is relentless and the Capitán Vidal character (brilliantly played with squinting severity by López) is so repulsive and misanthropic. But this of course is the whole point of the story; Ofelia escapes the world into her imagination and we gladly escape with her, even if she is merely losing her mind. There are very few fantasy films with adult sensibilities (Drop Dead Fred, Nightbreed, Heavenly Creatures) and this one blends its mixture of revolutionary drama and fairy-tale fable with effortless ease. Eleven-year-old Baquero is sensational as Ofelia, timeless and haunted, never overplaying the moment, and we wince at every cruel injustice she suffers. Verdú is great as the housekeeper and Jones (a regular in Del Toro's movies) is amazing as both Fauno and the ultra-creepy Hombre Palido / Pale Man. Guillermo Navarro's photography is superb throughout - crucially he shoots the whole film the same way, choosing not to delineate the fantastic scenes until the very end and thereby seamlessly integrating Ofelia's story into the whole. Gifted Mexican director Del Toro's horror films (Cronos, Mimic, Hellboy) are well respected, but with this movie - a sort-of sequel to his earlier El Espinazo Del Diablo / The Devil's Backbone - he shifts gear into a much more unique and multi-layered film, more reminiscent of European art-house cinema than escapist entertainment, and was deservedly praised for his efforts. Shot entirely in Spain, and a triple Oscar-winner (very unusual for a foreign language film) for Art Direction, Photography and Makeup. Please note that the English title of this movie - Pan's Labyrinth - is something of a misnomer, since the Fauno character is specifically not the pipe-playing, lecherous Greek God of shepherds called Pan, albeit having some similarities. Anyway, don't miss this evocative and richly-textured picture.