An excellent adult's fable

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2007)

Pan's Labyrinth is easily one of the top ten films to arrive to theaters this year from a visual point of view. The design and direction of the film shows Guillermo Del Toro to truly have a gift at crafting lush, strange worlds that attract the eye. This film stands as his most mature directing to date, as he certainly pulled back the reins and elevated the real world aspect of the film. The country setting most likely helped in establishing this, but it could certainly not be achieved with a director who doesn't feel there isn't enough "stuff" on screen at any given time.
Del Toro allows his characters to breathe without the claustrophobic eye candy of other effects driven directors. Thus, the performances certainly stand out as the characters are richly drawn and given freedom to expand. While many of Del Toro's previous films stand on the strength of their action sequences, Pan's Labyrinth stands as being his most character driven to date with a wide host of characters each displaying a wide diversity of motivations and desires.
I went into this film with high expectations, which probably contributed to the fact that I was not as impressed with the film as I had expected I would be. While it is an excellent film, it could have been improved with a greater connection between the protagonist's different "tasks" and the real world she lived in. There was a significant disconnection that made her real life and her fantasy life seem like two different, unrelated stories at times.
As well, the brutality of the film seemed gratuitous at times. Del Toro certainly isn't shy at showing brutal visuals (and I am in fact a fan of such visualization when appropriate) but there is a time where the audience gets the point, most notable of these is the Captain's sewing sequence which tended to go on for much longer than necessary. This could have been a fault of the editor, but ultimately the responsibility to draw the scene out was not entirely appropriate for the pacing of the film.
All in all, Pan's Labyrinth is one of the best films of 2006 and stands as one of the best adult fable/fairy-tales I have ever seen. Del Toro's unique visuals and gifted design sensibilities raise the film and outrightly vindicate his position as one of the world's top fantasy directors.