PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006)

A.K.A.: El Laberinto Del Fauno

Country: Spain / Mexico / U.S.A.

Genre(s): Drama / Fantasy / Horror / War

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ivana Baquero / Sergi Lopez / Maribel Verdu

Plot

Traveling into the Spanish wilderness to stay with her step-father (A fascist Army officer who uses brutal methods to hunt down rebels), young Ophelia discovers a vast labyrinth, in which lives Pan, a mystical creature who tells her she is actually a magical princess.  Pan gives her three tasks to complete, which lead to fantastical, often horrifying, adventures that have equally frightening repercussions in the “real” world.

What I Liked

Director Guillermo del Toro has turned out some of the best (if not the very best) dark fantasy films of the past fifteen-or-so years and “Pan’s Labyrinth” is probably his masterpiece.  The quintessential del Toro film, it is at various times quirky, terrifying, awe-inspiring, opulent, and stark, sometimes all at once.  Thematically, the film is a tribute to the childhood imagination, which, if one cares to remember their childhood imaginings honestly, were colorful and inspiring, but also frightening and creepy.  But there is a philosophical complexity in the story, about how the imagination can affect reality and about the power of mythology.  It is both a sumptuous escapist fantasy and a Jungian treatise on the power of belief.

The whole film is an exercise in attention to detail.  The visuals are darkly sumptuous, saturated with layers upon layers of colors and textures.  The costume, makeup, and CGI are all awe-inspiring, making one want to rewind and pause scenes just to take a longer look at how intricately executed they are.  Even the intense focus on the sound of the film mesmerizes, using minutiae like footsteps and the wind to add to the film’s mysterious beauty.  I've truly seen nothing else quite like this movie.

Even looking past the film’s astounding fantastic elements, the more down-to-Earth war drama that operates almost as a frame story has some seriously suspenseful drama.  Actor Sergi Lopez is the greatest asset to these scenes as an absolutely despicable villain, Captain Vidal.

What I Didn’t Like

“Pan’s Labyrinth” truly does have a little something for everybody: fantasy, romance, war, comedy, action, and drama.  I’m not typically one for fantasy films, but there really is nothing to complain about.  This truly is a movie I’ll remember as long as I’m able to remember anything.  Which brings us to…

Most Memorable Scene

For all of its stunningly inventive renderings of fantastical creatures (the Pale Man in particular is a nightmarish treat) the most horrible of its monsters is the human one, Lopez’s Captain Vidal.  His brutality is shocking from the first moment it appears and only escalates from there, culminating in a couple of scenes of imprisonment and torture inside a barn that solidify his deserving status as one of the most effective movie villains of the twenty-first century thus far.

My Rating: 5 out of 5