On separate occasions, both Maren and Sara indicated that I would love this film called Pan’s Labyrinth. I decided to approach it like I did The Blair Witch Project – know nothing about the film upon entering the theater and hopefully be blown away by its sheer awesomeness.
Little did Vero or I know, it was a Spanish film with subtitles! That threw me for a loop. I really didn’t know anything about this film! The film is by Director Guillermo del Toro.
Taken from Wikipedia:
The story cuts to post-Civil War Spain in 1944, after Francisco Franco has come into power. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl often absorbed in fairy tales, travels with her pregnant mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to meet Captain Vidal (Sergi López), Ofelia’s new stepfather. Vidal is a brutal fascist devotee stationed at a countryside mill, where he has been assigned to seek out and eliminate a rogue Republican militia.
So the film revolves around this story of how Captain Vidal is trying to deal with the guerrilla warriors. This, on its own, is a decent story, but nothing earth-shattering about it.
What REALLY sets the film above the bar is how they incorporate a second storyline where Ofelia meets a fairy which leads her through a labyrinth to meet a faun. For those who are not in the fantasy knowledge realm, a faun is a half man, half goat creature.
In meeting this faun, he reveals that Ofelia is actually a reincarnated Princess and she must complete three tasks to allow her to open the portal back to the underworld where her father, the King, is waiting for her after all this time.
The imagery from her little quests around the area blew me away. I am attaching a picture of one of the creatures, the Pale Man, who has his eyes in his hands. This moment in the movie was creepy, fantastical and just jaw-dropping. It actually reminded me of the colours and elements used in films like The Cell, or the imagery used in Titus. Titus, man, that is a great film. Watch it, it’s the darkest Shakespeare there ever was.
I have read that Pan’s Labyrinth has received worldwide recognition, and even the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes has a 96% rating for it.
While I did enjoy the movie, I did feel that I would rather have seen a lot more fantasy elements to it. Vero noted that the fantasy elements, although they are probably the coolest scenes we have seen, only accounted for 1/4 of the film. So most of the time I was just waiting for another fantasy scene to come into the film.
I am unsure if I fell victim to ‘the hype’ as we all do when people proclaim ‘best movie ever!!!’ as I tend to do. It somehow increases expectations. I can’t say that this film blew me away…but I think if the entire film was just the fantasy sequences, then most definitely.
You know what? I think I have to see it again. I did enjoy the war story that went along with it. Captain Vidal was a fearsome man and the violence was pretty crazy in some scenes so it really made you hate the man. They did a good job portraying him as a man to be feared.
All in all, I would say that the fantasy scenes were worth the price of admission alone. Guillermo del Toro is able to create a fantastical realm which I would hope we see more of in the future.
3 replies on “Review: Pan’s Labyrinth”
Ryan – you make some good points about the movie. I guess the reason I liked it so much was the incorporation of the historical aspects (that being one of my favourite genres of movies)…The fact that the fantasy scenese were interspersed throughout the film made me like it more because they were two very different genres. I think Pan’s Labryrinth is unique that it marries two opposite realms into one seamless movie. The photo of the creature is so creepy!
You know what? You are completely right and I didn’t even realize that aspect. the film is a great war film and a great fantasy film and he merges the two amazingly.
I think I am appreciating this film more and more.
I think I will appreciate it more when I see it on the small screen as there are some times where you are reading the subtitles and don’t catch the picture.
That’s the thing, I was most disapointed by the fact that we had to read the subtitles to follow the story when you knew there was great imagery. We were not looking at them since we couldn’t afford to get lost in the story… Like Ryan said, I would love to watch it again just to be able to enjoy the visual. I like the idea though, and the creativity expressed in that movie.