Beautiful & haunting

Rating: 10/10 (31 July 2007)

This movie is beautiful, haunting and utterly imaginative. It's a masterpiece of film-making and deserves a place in film history. Del Toro takes what on the surface (or in the hands of another director) could be a simple child's fairy tale, and gives it extraordinary depth. Every character is fully drawn, especially the central character around whom the story swirls. The story is so compelling that even without the fantasy elements, I would have been gripped to my seat. But the fantasy elements take the visuals to a whole other level and plunge the viewer into a world that is like none other you've ever experienced. It is amazing how real the fantastical is - is Ofelia making it up or is it really happening? This was absolutely my favorite film of 2006.