The last task is for the viewer

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2008)

"Pan's Labyrinth" is one of those movies that deserved all the praise that it receives. Now imagine if a movie has the cruelty and the horror of movies as "In Company of Wolves", the dark beauty of Tim Burton's films and the nostalgic tone of the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. "Pan's Labyrinth" has all that and more. The story could be taken literally as the way that everything that happens in the movie is real, but also could be seen as a symbol of the feelings of the characters in the hard times that they live. Ofelia, the main character is a girl that dreams with her own world of fantasy when the reality fails her miserably. And after he mets the strange faun (played wonderfully by Doug Jones, who also made a great work playing the terrifying Pale Man) she finds her hope, but also learns about all the evilness around her, the cruelty and the lack of humanity of the world that she lives, something that seems more terrifying than giant frogs or strange monsters. At the end, the faun offers her chose between her dreams and what is good. And she chooses, and then the ambiguous (and yet, somewhat hopeful) ending came. So here is a last task for the viewers of the film made by Guillermo del Toro: If that those viewers are able to accept the fantasy or if they will reject it considering that everything was in Ofelia's mind. Many theories have been mentioned in different web sites, some trying to prove that everything related with the fantasy (the faun, the fairies, the monsters and the magical kingdom) were only imagination, while others are convinced that all the events of the movie were real. However, there is nothing to prove: The film's tone is ambiguous, letting the viewers chose whatever they want according their perception of the reality. I guess that it is the message of "Pan's Labyrinth": how our perception of the world makes us chose our decisions, to chose between right and wrong, to chose to believe or not. It is very much like believing in the after-life, and some religious imagery shows us that this wasn't unintentional. Besides that, the film is wonderful: the direction is great, the atmosphere is very well made, the performances are incredible (Specially Sergi López as the evil Captain Vidal, that is by more terrifying than any of the monsters of the film) This is a good example of adult fantasy, and is probably a unique movie in his genre. Now that Guillermo del Toro is working on "The Hobbit" we know that we could wait for the best.