With Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, it's a situation of alot of hype, but does it live up to it? well, it sure as hell does. It tells the story of this young girl, Ofelia, who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, a ruthless captain of a spanish army. Ofelia reads alot of fantasy books and has a big imagination, just before leaving with her mother she spots a dragon fly type creature she beleives to be a fairy. This dragon fly creature follows her is indeed a fairy, who leads her to an old fawn in the center of the labyrinth. She is told that she's a princess, but to prove herself must undertake several tasks for these fairytale creatures. However, in meantime the captain is undertaking a violent war and has little remorse for Ofelia's mother or Ofelia herself. His only concern is that ofelia's mother is pregnant with his child, who he beleives is a boy, and that boy must be born, even, due to complications, if it risks the mother's life.
Recently i've been studying "shock cinema" in film studies class, and how they use different elements to shock you. In case of Labyrinth, the shock comes in form of violence. The way it was promoted and marketed would have you beleive this was a fairly harmless fairytale story with wonderful creatures and stunning visual effects. It has those, but this is set to a very hostile story of power, greed, violence and war. This is backbone of the movie and i beleive is prime reason Ofelia is in this fantasy world, to escape harsh reality of the actions taking place around her. The visuals and creatures in the movie are all a joy to watch, a scene in which a creat (pictured at start of review) is chasing ofelia is very stunning. With the disembodied parts, detachable eyes he places in his palms, he has to adjust while chasing her. mise-en-scene used and the non diegtic music adds to the tention. With many references to story much like this such as "Alice in Wonderland" & "Wizard of Oz" you can see relation between ofelia and those respective characters.
Some have said the Captain character was over the top. Which he is, but i liked that. his hyperbolic almost cartoonish villainy, adds to fairytale aspect of the iflm, he is much like a villian you would read about in a short story or comic book. Keep in mind, this is in no means a kids movie, though the fantasy elements, tihs is a vivid violent look at war, birth, greed and struggle laced with a running fantasy story.
The final scenes will grip you, as will majority of the film. The cinetography is well placed and hooks you in. Music is fantastic and adds to the scenes.
Final point i want to make is about the director Guillermo del Toro. being born in Mexico, this is film set in his native country and is subtitled. However what really interests me is he is able to make this art house films such as Pan's (and his earlier work) yet he also transfers into the blockbuster market, being director of comic book movie, Hellboy. So he is able to be a big commercial draw and make smaller films such as pan's.
I cannot stress enough how great this movie is, best of 2006. See this film, even if your not usually keen on world cinema, this is movie about love, family, imagination, greed and war, all things that will transfer, any language.
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