Unexpected brilliance.

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2006)

This is a movie with a simple and straightforward plot which contains layers and layers of intelligent writing, metaphors and message.
To speak further about the script will end up in spoilers and that would be pointless since my very purpose writing this review is to encourage people to see it.
This is no small feat, interpreting fantasy as something of a product of a real world, cross-referencing how the child acts to her real surroundings and the "other world", metaphors that describe the accelerated state of growing up some of us are put through... Incredible. Simple, straightforward yet there is so much to be appreciated.
Those who are saying how it's predictable and thus not enjoyable, I ask of you, which movie nowadays aren't predictable? Hell, even 21 grams was predictable but so damned good. It's not about how it ends, you can always predict how a movie would end if you've ever taken a half-decent script writing class or have some common sense. It's always about how well you tell a story.
I'm grateful there are still directors who aren't tied down to this new epidemic of including a plot twist simply because they need a plot twist.
Pan's Labyrinth features some of the best storytelling and attention to detail without being affected by the now ever-popular opinion of cameras having to be put through several technical difficulties to make the shots eligible to be called a brilliant shot.
I am also grateful for them not dubbing it. Watching it in its' original language is much, much more rewarding even if I had to rely on the subtitles for most of the time.
This is a brilliant movie. Watch it.