Represents the cruel delusions suffered by a young girl in brutal surroundings. CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Rating: 3/10 (29 November 2009)

I have extremely mixed feelings about this film. Although the performances were excellent, the film itself relies on the 'gimicky' mixture of 'fantasy' and brutal wartime reality to make its mark. In and of themselves the wartime scenes and the fantasy scenes were nothing new until combined together. Each considered separately could be considered extremely derivative.
I disliked this film intensely for its cruel treatment of the young girl (its central character). This film's sole differentiating factor relies on a telling the tale of young girl's tragic journey into first escapism, then delusion and finally death. It is to date the singularly most depressing film I have seen in a good long while.
In the beginning (before we even arrive at the cinema) we are led to believe this a fantastical tale of a faerie world. This may bring to mind positive images for some. However Guillermo taps into the darker side of faerie, capturing the true menace and duplicitousness of that otherworldly breed. It is NOT for children. It is not for adults who expect something magical. Expect grotesque, twisted motives from equally grotesque characters both faerie and otherwise.
We are introduced to Ophelia as an precocious and creative child. Eventually cast aside by her mother in favour of her new baby, abused and rejected by her mother's demented new husband and bereft of all hope she invents a new world of faerie to escape into. So begins her moral, intellectual and mental decline.
As events unfold and and the adults win and lose their various battles, her descent into delusion goes largely unremarked until she steals her baby brother to sacrifice him and open the gates to the faerie world where she imagines she will be a faerie princess, beloved of faerie parents. You could be mislead into believing that this is actually the case yet, if you watch closely, all the signs that the world is entirely of her own creation and in fact completely imaginary are there.
The darkness of the world she creates is a reflection of her failure to truly escape the bleak brutality of the world she really inhabits. What is more, the 'sacrifice' demanded by the faun is a dark reflection of her own desire to reverse the reality where in fact she is the one who has been sacrificed (cast aside). At the last minute could we say that she changed her mind? Or could we say that she recognised her own immorality in such a way that she couldn't accept it and fled once more into her dark world seeking solace and reassurance.
We never discover. She is shot by her stepfather and dies. There is an extremely powerful moment where the maid (Mercedes) rebukes the step father and takes the baby after which justice is served. Then we see Ophelia in her dark faerie world being welcomed by her faerie parents just as she had imagined, a scene which even she must recognise with her last breath as too good to be true when the faerie parents so resemble her actual human parents.
The extent of personal delusion and the brutality of the personal consequences are worthy themes but they are far too adult to be justifiably played out through a child character. In so doing, Guillermo has achieved a shock effect, however relying on such tactics as the central driving force of the film seems cheap and to be frank, left a bitter taste in my mouth. This man should apply his considerable talent with more care and discernment.
We don't learn anything from this film. We simply suffer. And where's the magic in that?