PAN'S LABYRINTH

Director: Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy, Blade II)
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Ariadna Gil

Pan's Labyrinth has been on my radar for months and months now, and I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint. This story which is generally a defense for escapism and imagination, quite successfully married the horrible reality of war with truly fantastical dream worlds. It's an excellent film, easily one of the best of 2006, and probably the most creative by far. It deserves to be seen. You deserve to see it.

In some respects this film can be seen as paired with The Devil's Backbone, Del Toro's ghost tale set in an a republican orphanage in the final days of the Spanish Civil War, although the stories are entirely separate and unique. In Pan's Labyrinth, also set in the last days of the war, a young girl (Baquero) moves to a remote facist outpost with her mother, where her new father is the terrifically menacing Captain. The father has been charged with stopping the bands of republican partisans that are hiding in the mountains, and he does so brutally and unwaveringly. The girl is terrified of the life she is forced to live, and as the horrors of the war and her father-in-law grow more present she escapes into a fantasy world where she is a princess.

In her dreams she is a princess who must perform a series of fantastical tasks to reclaim her throne, and more importantly her true family. She is led on these imaginations by a fawn, a mythical creature that finely walks the line between "wonderful" and "unsettling". Each of the tasks is stunning and creative in its own way, especially one involving a creature with eyeballs in its hands. (That thing is something I won't forget for quite some time.) After each escape into her imagination, however, the reality of the war returns, more violent and closer than ever. Eventually both the war and her fantasy world collide in a thrilling and emotional climax.

As I said, this story is about the power of escapism, and our need for it. It's a defense of all the silly little children who love ghost stories and Tolkein books. It might be a defense of religious mythology, or rather a defense of those who believe in such things, but the film doesn't overtly touch on organized religion. For certain it's an attack on the horrible realities of our war-ridden nature. It shows a little girl suffering much more than any should, and using her imagination to find the most hidden bits of hope that still inhabit her soul. It's a wonderful movie that I recommend. I should note that it is violent, but as a movie about the horrors of war it's rightfully so.

Now for all of the praise I've heaped upon the film, it does have flaws. Del Toro's films are always about fantasy worlds, and the reality of his Spanish Civil War is not perfect. At times the Captain felt unreal to me as did the events of the war. I also didn't feel like the basic premise of the story, that the mother needed to marry this barbaric fascist, was truthful. They certainly didn't seem like a good match. But in the end these are very small complaints compared to the success of the film as a whole. It's a wonderfully creative and powerful movie. With this movie Del Toro moves into a higher category of directors, instead of just being the guy who did Hellboy, Mimic, and Blade II.

Standouts: The director's vision, this world is entirely Del Toro's creation.
Blowouts: Aspects of the "real" world didn't feel real to me, although since the story was told through the eyes of a little girl that can easily be explained away.

Grade: A