An Imaginative Tale

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2007)

Pan's Labyrinth surprised me completely. It was like watching a film concerning the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and also a parallel fantasy film at the same time. The actual 'fantasy' contained within Pan's Labyrinth was far less then I imagined. 'Lord of the Rings' it isn't.
I hope people who aren't inclined to watch a 'fantasy' film go out and watch 'Pan's Labyrinth'. Everyone is obviously talking about Guillermo del Toro and his fantastic direction, and rightly so, but the performances of all the actors concerned, particularly Ivana Baquero as Ofelia, Sergi Lopez as Captain Vital and Maribel Verdu as Mercedes are exceptional.
The cinematography was of very high quality, which helped capture the whole essence and vision of the film beautifully, although, I definitely want to see the film again to really experience all the nuances of the film that you sometimes miss when watching a film with subtitles, while concentrating on the plot.
I also have to mention the sound of the film as it's extraordinary. The cinema I visited had a decent sound system (I'm a music lecturer/producer and engineer) and it seemed that del Toro wanted to use 'sound' as another character within the film.
Pan's Labyrinth was actually released here in the UK before the US, which is very rare, although apparently in its first weekend in the US it was only shown in 17 theatres! It also doesn't seem to be shown in many UK cinemas, which is a shame.
But I would definitely recommend this film to any movie lover, particularly those of an open mind who can watch a film with subtitles!