A haunting, melancholy fable

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2007)

As flawless a fusion of fantasy and reality as any in recent times, Guillermo del Toro's labour of love grabs the audience's attention from the start and doesn't release it until long after the film is over.
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) comes with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather (Sergi Lopez), a sadistic captain in Franco's army, which scours the woods around her fresh home to kill and torture republican rebels.
Terrified and appalled by this new world around her, Ofelia retreats into her books and a fantasy world filled with mysterious insects, magic portals, terrifying apparitions and a gruff faun, who tells her she must complete three tasks if she is to reclaim her place as a princess in a faraway land.
Visually beguiling, entrancing in narrative and heartbreaking in its themes, this is very much a fairy tale of the old school, and is definitely not one for kids  although it certainly has powerful messages for audiences about the way children are affected by the adult world around them. As horrible though Ofelia's fantasy world sometimes is, it is dwarfed by the drab reality of the outside world, and it's perhaps that which lends to one to think of it as an Alcie in Wonderland for modern times.
Part fantasy, part history and part horror, the filmmakers have made this film with passion and it shows - from del Toro's rich visuals to the convincing and memorable performances.
The film has its perfect counterpart in the score, with haunting and memorable melodies, a breath of danger and a pervading sadness. Like Pan's Labyrinth, it will remain in your mind and heart when the theatre has long since faded into distant memory.