Barely Okay, But Nowhere Near Great

Rating: 3/10 (5 July 2007)

I always give a film credit for trying hard, and "El Laberinto del fauno" does try awfully hard (especially its visual effects), but it isn't even a halfway great film and nowhere near deserving of inclusion in the IMDb's top 250 films of all time list. One of the best of 2006? Maybe. One of the best of the 2000s? No. One of the best of the last 100 years? Not even close.
I can only assume that the people who rank it an 8 or higher have seen very few truly great films or they put an extraordinary weight on visuals and art direction (which are very good in this film) and don't care much about acting, characters, dialogue, or plot (which are all pretty average in this film). The fact that it's a foreign film probably makes it more appealing to some Americans.
A few of the many problems in this film:
The characters are basically one-dimensional and not nuanced or interesting in any way. For example, the captain is a sadistic brute all the time. Some sadistic brutes can show a charming side when they want to and keep their real nature hidden, but this captain never does.
Which leads to a plot problem: Why would the woman marry him? Okay, maybe women can't get along without a man in fascist 1940s Spain. But was there no other choice? Or maybe she had to marry him so there'd be a movie.
Next: The girl/princess is supposed to complete three tasks and if she fails, her chance to return to her fairy home is gone ... and she does fail, so the rules are changed to "if you fail, maybe the faun will change its mind and give you another chance".
And how can a toad, even a really big one, cause a tree to die? And why it have a key in its belly?
What is that monster with its eyes in its hands? Okay, it's "whoa, dude, cool" to look at, but does it have any internal consistency with the rest of the fantasy? Are any of the fantasy sequences internally consistent? Do the characters in the fantasy have any motivations or story of their own? Or do they all exist just to be "metaphorical" and impress the pseudo-intellectuals? Does the fantasy have any connection to the real world, or to the girl? If not, then the problem is we have two separate movies: a fantasy and a war story, neither of which is given the time needed for a complete telling.
And why does the captain put a razor against his mirror image? Is it supposed to mean something? For me, it seemed just another impressive visual that is essentially empty because it is unconnected to anything in the character, dialogue, or plot.
A Plot problem: Why didn't the housekeeper kill the captain when she had the chance (when he was on his knees with her knife in his mouth)? Why let him live? Oh, yeah, so he can appear in the final climax. Etc.
To sum up: Some cool effects to look, but not much else. Don't bother.