"Pan's Labyrinth" (2006)

“Pans Labyrinth” (2006) Review:

Escape to Your Darkest Fairytales

Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film “Pans Labyrinth” marks a marvelous collaboration between storytelling and artistic vision, allowing del Toro to truly show his brilliance behind the camera. But to say that the film was simply a filmmaking achievement leaves something else out entirely; the truly compelling and well written story which creates truly compelling and meaningful characters that transcend language
and time. In short, this film is a masterpiece and should be recognized as one of the fines Spanish language films to date, unquestioned.
The film, taking place in Spain during the Spanish civil war, mirrors the story of a young girl brought with her pregnant mother to meet her step father and live with him at a military outpost and the story of a princess stumbling into and exploring her own fantasy kingdom. Aided by a somewhat untrustworthy and delightfully creepy faun voiced by Doug Jones, our heroin, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is assigned a series of tasks she must undertake to open the portal back to her home. This comes at the least opportune time possible for Ofelia as her stepfather Vidal (Sergi López) commands a military detachment with strict discipline and a fondness for torturing the local rebels who fight a guerilla war with Vidal throughout the film aided by Carmen (Ariada Gil), Vidal’s maid, and the doctor (Álex Angulo). In this film, Ofelia spends the majority of her time plotting to regain her throne in her mystical land yet unfortunately finds herself caught up in larger schemes at work.
The film features marvelous artwork that is so definitively del Toro’s that one only needs realize the immediate attraction to creating an entirely new fairy tale; del Toro goes wild – incorporating elements of traditional Grimm fairy tales as well as a fantastic vision for the bizarre the film feels fresh and alive with each and every new monster the audience meets. With exquisitely crafted style, the film’s magical kingdom has specific stylistic motifs and frequent use of curved edges and spirals and expressive mouths, which directly opposes many of the strait lines and strict expectations of the real world. The film’s darkness also prevents it from becoming campy, the road down which “The Brother’s Grimm” (2005), unfortunately, traveled. In spite of the temptation to cut corners and divorce the two stories from one another, del Toro flawlessly moves between the two worlds combining plot points in both films in such a way as to allow the audience to question whether of not magic is in some small way real. 
Yet this film would be little to nothing without it’s acting. With pointedly great performances from all of the main cast, the true gem in the film is Sergi López. Managing to create a character which is not only evil but also realistic can be extraordinarily difficult in many films, yet for López this appears to come naturally as he creates a character which is both vile and sadistic yet also a bit sympathetic with realistic intentions and ultimately a grounding in how a real person in his circumstances might act, as opposed to the tempting road of being unrealistically evil as was Mickey Rourke in “Immortals” (2011). In addition to López, Ivana Baquero delivers a spell binding performance with little to be picked at yet still not quite the intensity or power of López’s performance.
Finally, the most important part of this movie is what it is not. This film is mainly not derivative. At few points in this film could a viewer actually predict what would happen as the film consistently breaks from it’s predecessors in the Grimm Brothers and creates a more nuanced and dark fairytale where not everything is happily ever after. Rather the film offers an escape from the normal brand of Disney fairytale and presents one deformed by the time and place within which it is set and ultimately that is a more enjoyable film going experience than other fantasy films can offer.
What can ultimately be said about “Pans Labyrinth” can be said about any well directed, well acted and well though trough films; this film is ingenious. Whether or not the ending suits the fancy of every filmgoer, that’s not del Toro’s intention. Rather del Toro presents a dark fairytale with glimmers of hope set in an incredibly woeful and sad time. Overall this is forces the viewer reconsider what a fairytale can be as a storytelling mechanism and as an escape from reality.

Stars: 9 / 10