If you're going to see a high budget foreign language film, see this.

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2007)

The reason Pan's Labyrinth works is because it's a clever film that tackles numerous different subjects on various different levels giving the viewer lots to focus on and get involved with. The film studies good and evil, loneliness, love or lack of love towards human beings as well as made-up creatures such as fairies. It's also able to draw the viewer into its world of intrigue and fantasy; tempting us and forcing us to think for ourselves whether or not what's happening is real as although this is a realist film, there is enough material to suggest otherwise.
Setting is so important in the film, so much so as the film begins in a car en-route; there is no such time for introductions and pleasantries. The majority of the film is set at an army base in the Spanish woodland but locations within locations are so much more important: the barn, the woodshed, the bedroom and the woods themselves all serve as dangerous and bleak locations  this twinned with excellent cinematography gives off a sort of 'trapped' feeling that anywhere you go, you're in trouble. Of course, Ofelia's (Baquero) visions or dreams or whatever you want to call them up until the closing fifteen minutes act as an escape from these bleak surroundings but what an escape. In order to get away from her living, Ofelia must put herself in situations and places that are far more dangerous than the camp, she must face foes that are far more dangerous than an uncaring father in law or Spanish soldiers in the hills who are outgunned anyway and each sequence makes for fascinating viewing.
There is enough talk and build up through dialogue early on to suggest all is not right in the house at the camp. Very early on in the film, it is slightly impossible to say whether or not Ofelia is dreaming or really is living out a fantasy: a flying bug, wind whistling through the house 'talking' to the occupants and the faces on inanimate objects (even the fireplace) create an eerie build up to what awaits but all these things are possible in the real world: wind through houses making them 'creak', flying bugs and the patterns that make up faces around the place  can you honestly say you've never looked at a pansy flower and thought it might be smiling back at you? However, Pan's Labyrinth is such a clever film that it turns us around not instantly but slowly. It smells our interest and curiosity and toys with it like it's a waft of a freshly cooked pie resting on a window ledge. Ofelia is given a book that will 'show her' things but it's completely blank until it wants to work; the bug turns into a fairy but Ofelia's been reading books about fairies just before bed and the old faun may be an impossible thing to encounter in the real world but is it just a delusion of an animal she saw or is it her imagination mixed with the new, country air she can smell and has never smelt before? After all, she did say it smelt of 'earth'  maybe as an urban child, she has never really smelt 'earth' before and created an image of what 'earth' might look.
Pan's Labyrinth is not just a film about a confused girl but also a double act of brilliant storytelling when thinking of the soldiers stories. The two sides are at loggerheads throughout, leading to bloody and compelling shootouts throughout; there is even space for betrayal and forbidden love between sides, something that is woven in superbly. I watched as the Fascist soldiers set themselves tasks; small tasks and objectives to defeat the enemy or secure their own safety. Maybe Ofelia is watching and setting her self these tasks  since her father in law is in control, maybe she's copying him and trying to win her own war that she has created in her mind; either way, the way both sides of the film are sewed together is just a joy to watch.
I am yet to mention the emotional depth the film carries when dealing with friendships, a mother before birth, betrayal, a child just trying to help, isolation and a smashed watch as it would just spoil it. If I do have a gripe it's because I don't like it when a character blatantly does something wrong just to spurn an action scene and here, it involves some grapes but this should in no way put you off as Pan's Labyrinth is a class act in storytelling, unpredictability and cinematography; amongst so many other things.