The definitive adult fairy tale

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2012)

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is set in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. And it's no ordinary film. It's a highly original combination of war drama with pure phantasmagorical fantasy. Its central character is a young girl called Ofelia, quite brilliantly played by Ivana Baquero in one of the all-time great child performances. Ofelia follows her mother to a remote outpost where she joins her new husband, a sadistic army captain. Ofelia is a shy bookish girl who loves fairy stories. Almost immediately she discovers a parallel reality, an underground labyrinth presided over by a huge faun. This strange world is contrasted with her grim reality, a joyless world full of violence and hopelessness. Both realities merge for Ofelia and the fantasy world provides answers for her to take back to her real life.
This is perhaps the most definitive example of a fairy tale for adults. It's a story that combines great beauty with harsh ugliness. Its strong stuff that doesn't play things easy. It's emotionally pretty intense and will move most people who watch it more than most movies. The exceptionally talented cast of actors help cement the dramatic intensity. While, it benefits from the hand of a master visual storyteller like del Toro. Very few directors would have thought it obvious to tell this story in this way. But it's precisely this idea that elevates Pan's Labyrinth to such a high level. The serious drama benefits from the bizarre contrast provided by the fantasy and vice versa. They both bring out interesting aspects of each other and they both ultimately combine to devastating emotional effect by the end.