Absolutely the Best Movie of 2006

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2007)

Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro revisits the world he explored first in the awesome "The Devil's Backbone," that of the Spanish Civil War. Only this time it's 1944 and the war has just ended. Only a few rebel groups are left to be defeated by Franco's army. The story here is set at one of the rural outposts where militia forces occupy the forest near an old mill.
Ivana Baquero is Ofelia, a ten-year-old girl who travels with her pregnant mother to meet her stepfather, the sadistic Captain Vidal, who cares only about two things: that his son be born at the mill, and that he fulfill his duty and put down the uprising.
Ofelia's only friend is Mercedes ("Y tu mama tambien"'s Maribel Verdu), a serving girl who is feeding information to the rebels. After figuring out who she is, Ofelia agrees to keep her secret because she likes Mercedes, and fears Captain Vidal.
To escape the violence, Ofelia loses herself among fairies and a faun who resides in an ancient labyrinth behind the mill. The faun (played by Doug Jones of Del Toro's "Hellboy") explains to Ofelia that she is a princess who must complete three tasks in order to prove that she isn't mortal, and can be admitted back to her kingdom.
The first of her missions is to destroy an obese frog who has burrowed inside a giant fig tree and is killing it. The scene is pretty funny, but every time she goes on one of these missions she gets berated by her mother, who seems to be even more afraid of Vidal than anyone else.
Del Toro masterfully interweaves the real and surreal elements of the story, balancing them perfectly to create a flawless mix of real tension and magic. She must contend with her mother's worsening condition in pregnancy, and Vidal's growing impatience with her presence at the mill. The rebels know the terrain, but Vidal's men are better equipped, and more fierce. The violence in the movie is quite graphic and heart-wrenching.
Sergi Lopez, as Captain Vidal, should take up residence as one of the great villains of cinema. Lopez imbues in Vidal the kind of humanity that seemed absent in Eduardo Noriega's Jacinto from "Backbone". As such he is a much scarier person. Vidal is the son of a military man who died in the line of duty. His only wish is to follow in his father's footsteps. But first, he must have a son to follow in his. And for this he has no room to care much for Ofelia, or her ailing mother, so long as his son is delivered.
As the other great villain of the movie, Del Toro gives us the Pale Man, a murderous white creature (also Doug Jones) with eyes in his hands and long sharp claws. In his banquet hall there are paintings of him with piles of dead children mounted around him. Truly a menacing figure. His memory is not easy to shake.
This often-shocking film is certainly not for small fry--it would surely give them nightmares--but it is an odyssey that must be seen to be believed. Drawing from a number of fairy tales, Del Toro has created an original work that goes far to become in my opinion the best movie I have seen this year, and certainly Del Toro's masterwork.