Pan's Labyrinth Release Date: December 29, 2006 Starring: Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Ariadna Gil, Alex Angulo Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro
GLENN KENNY'S REVIEW (posted 12/13/06)
This intense film, a mix of horror, fantasy, and history that convinces on all those levels and mixes them up with dizzying brio, is a searing cinematic experience, a beautiful, terrifying vision from writer-director Guillermo del Toro.
Labyrinth takes place in the shadow of the Spanish civil war (as did del Toro's impressive 2001 ghost story The Devil's Backbone); it opens with little girl Ofelia travelling with her mother to the rural outpost of Ofelia's stepfather, the rigid and, we will soon learn, brutal fascist Captain Vidal, whose mission is to stamp out the embers of the Republican not-quite army. Ofelia's an imaginative girl, still in thrall to fairy stories as her adolescence approaches; she and her pregnant mother have a strong bond but are confused by each other. Vidal is one of those types for whom confusion is a luxury, and he regards Ofelia as an unmitigated pest. His main concern, aside from slaughtering freedom fighters and keeping the surrounding area well under his iron boot, is that Ofelia's mom bear him an intact son and heir.
Ofelia's immediate alienation in her new environment manifests itself in a dazzling fantasy world presided over by a seductive and terrifying faun (embodied by mime Doug Jones, who played the fishy Abe Sapien in del Toro's Hellboy) who sets her a series of tasks; if she completes them successfully, he says, she'll be able to take her rightful place as princess of an underground kingdom. Ofelia, played with a heartbreaking and winning combination of grace and awkwardness by Ivana Baquero, attacks her tasks both eagerly and tentatively. She's dying to get out of Vidal's hell, but guilt-ridden at the prospect of abandoning her mother. And given that her "tasks" often get her in a mess, she tries Vidal's patience in ways that are literally life-threatening. And all the while, forces inside the household/encampment Vidal presides over — including the only people there who have shown Ofelia any kindness — are conspiring to strike back at the fascists.
Del Toro handles this rich narrative in a way that goes far beyond mere deftness — this is incredibly passionate filmmaking, its digital effects shots included. And while it's a paean to imagination, its devastating conclusion is far more layered than typical Hollywood "fantasy will set you free" bromides, and the film's stout-hearted contempt for cruelty of all kinds is uncanny, and inspiring.
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