A History of Magic

Rating: 10/10 (10 September 2006)

A quick comment: I just saw this film at the Toronto International Film Festival and it was absolutely brilliant. My only problem was that I didn't understand Spanish, so I constantly had to take my eyes off the beautiful images to look at the annoying subtitles. I think that what made this movie truly incredible was the combination of utterly fantastic fantasy and stunningly brutal realism. Some of the scenes with Captain Vidal were very reminiscent of Cronenberg's work in "A History of Violence". There's no fantasy movie I can think of that's exactly like the elements you see in this one, but in those parts of the movie it was almost like "Labyrinth" taking a few steps toward "The Cell" and stopping before it crossed the threshold. I know how stupid it is to compare something this original to anything else, but I think it's a useful frame of reference. If you do go see it, prepare for magic, prepare for violence and prepare to be stunned. Del Toro does it again!