El Laberinto del Fauno

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2007)

A supposed twenty plus minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, already in the top one hundred at the Internet Movie Data Base, every major film critic and their mothers are giving this film the highest possible praise. Naturally I went in hoping for the best and at same time expecting the worst. How can a film with this much praise possibly live up to the hype? Well it does, and then some.
El Laberinto del Fauno is the latest film by director Guerillmo Del Toro. It is easily his best work to date. Although I am basing this view having only seen two of his other films (Blade 2 and Hellboy). Those films were entertaining popcorn films. This however is something else all together. El Laberinto del Fauno tells the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is goes with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to live with step-father (Sergi López) who is a Captain fighting with the Nationalists at the time of the Spanish Civil War. The film takes place immediately after the war, when small pockets of Loyalists continue fighting the Nationalists. (For more info on the Spanish Civil War read a book) El Laberinto del Fauno however is not a film about the Spanish Civil War. It is a fairy tale and a dark one at that. Where this movie succeeds is that the lines between fantasy and reality are completely blurred and never once to the things happening in the fantasy world contradict those things going on in reality. Ofelia escapes into a fairy tale in order to escape the horrors around her. There are fairies, monsters, and a faun (Doug Jones) that sends her on various tasks. I won't get into those here as I like to avoid spoilers.
I waited until my second viewing in order to write this review. It is not that I did not like it the first time. I feel that this movie warrants multiple viewings in order to really sink in. The film works pretty much works on every level. The acting is top notch especially by Sergi López and Ivana Baquero. Ivana Baquero gives one of the best performances by a child actor in recent memory and López plays the villain to perfection. The special effects are never distracting, the storyline is innovative and above all else the film never drags. I'm reviewing this movie after my second viewing. The most important element of any film is its ability to hold up under multiple viewings. Will my opinion stay the same after several viewings? Only time will tell. For now however El Laberitno del Fauno remains a visionary masterpiece and one of the best films of recent memory