A fantastic piece of cinema!

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2008)

Even though he's not always great, all of Guillermo Del Toro's films to date have at least been interesting; cult flicks Cronos and The Devil's Backbone were brilliantly inventive, while his commercial output; films such as Blade II, Mimic and Hellboy were also noteworthy. Pan's Labyrinth has been released to almost universal praise, and that isn't surprising as although I won't heap quite as much praise on it as some have; it's a visually dazzling and overall satisfying piece, and certainly Del Toro's best film to date. Pan's Labyrinth is set in fascist Spain during the Second World War and focuses on a young girl named Ofelia. She travels with her mother to stay with her stepfather; the sadistic Captain Vidal. It's not long before she is lead into the woods by a flying stick insect and meets a Faun who tells her that she is, in fact, not a mortal human and is actually the son of the king of the underworld. However, in order to take her place at father's side and become a princess, she must first face and complete three gruesome tasks...
A lot of the film revolves around the implications of a rebellion against the evil Captain at the centre of the story, and this actually bodes surprisingly well with the fantasy element - which works as an 'escape' from the Second World War. Obviously the best thing about this movie is and was always going to be the visuals. The film is a visual feast; naturally there's plenty of imagination and invention courtesy of Del Toro and this helps to give the film a real 'fairy tale' feel. The fact that the film stars an eleven year old girl means that the film has a sort of 'kids flick' feel to it, although this is brilliantly offset by plenty of sadistic violence from the antagonist, as well as some fairly graphic fantasy violence (a monster with eyes in it's palms biting the heads off fairies, for example). This may make the film seem like it lacks focus - but clearly Pan's Labyrinth is a fairy tale for adults. The film is bolstered by a host of excellent performances from the largely Spanish cast. Ivana Baquero is the standout at the centre of the movie - she puts in an amazingly mature performance for a girl of eleven. Doug Jones is also great opposite her as the mysterious Faun. It all boils down to a satisfying and somewhat surprising conclusion and on the whole Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing cinematic achievement.