Movie Review--Pan's Labyrinth
The second movie we saw was today, at Crossroads 20 in Cary, NC. I was unsure about going to see Pan's Labyrinth in the theater, at first. I have no issues about watching movies with subtitles, at all (most of the time I turn the subtitles on for English movies, also, when I'm watching dvds), but I didn't know about watching one on the big screen. Now, I'm really glad we went.
This is the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) , a ten-year-old who travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband in a rural area up North in Spain, 1944, after Franco's victory. Her mother's husband, the Captain, is a cruel, vicious man who treats his wife with indifference (when faced with her possible death in childbirth, he tells the doctor to save the child, a boy, because it bears his name and his father's name, and to let his wife simply die), and ignores Ofelia altogether. Ofelia takes refuge in books of fairy tales. Things take a strange turn when she sees a fairy for herself.
The fairy takes her to an abandoned labyrinth, where she meets the faun Pan.
Ofelia: My name is Ofelia. Who are you?
Pan: Me? I've had so many names... Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am... I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness.
(quotes from IMDB.com)
Pan tells her that she is the long-lost reincarnation of the dark underground princess, and to be reunited with her father the king, she must perform three dangerous tasks before the full moon arrives.
I won't give away any more of the plot, other than to say that complications arise. What follows, though, is a haunting, disturbing, completely creepy adventure that completely draws you into its fantasy and never lets go. Though it is a bit scary and sometimes gruesome (and definitely not for kids), it is also quite beautiful and imaginitive. I expected Pan to be evil for the entire movie--as he says, he has "many names"--that evoked Satan to me, but to my surprise he was not. Sergi López as Ofelia's stepfather is chilling and horrible, as he is supposed to be. Her mother (Ariadna Gil) and maid Mercedes (Maribel Verdu) are both tragic figures--though Mercedes turns the tables in the end.
The story ends up being as much about this specific period in history as it does Ofelia's fantasy. The special effects are superb, and it is definitely well-acted. Doug Jones is fast becoming the next Ron Perlman, portraying all of these fantastic characters and creatures, under all of that makeup (and how hard would it be to be in this movie, when he didn't speak any Spanish?) . I am a big fan of Hellboy (though the comics more than the movie), and was pleasantly pleased to see that Jones, and director Guillermo del Toro haven't lost any of the talent that made Hellboy such a fun movie--and now they're doing part 2 as well as an animated cartoon series for Cartoon Network. It seems as though it's becoming a partnership, which is really great, as they're both extremely talented people who seem to genuinely care about the projects they are doing.
This film is worth seeing just for the visuals, but it's so much more than that. It really was disturbing, but great, and I'm still thinking about it hours later.
contains minor spoilers.
Oh and somebody asked me my favorite movies of 2006. I didn't really see that many new movies in 2006, so I'll tell you:
Casino Royale
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Little Miss Sunshine
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
but I haven't seen all of the probably-Oscar-nominated films yet. That's what Netflix is for, and a whole lot of them are coming out on dvd in February/March. Yay.