Pan’s Labrynth Review

        It’s always something to talk about Guillermo Del Toro. Quite possibly the best and nuanced director that specializes in dark and macabre imagery. I get the feeling he’s the thinking man’s Tim Burton due to how Del Toro never feels like he’s own directorial aesthetics never feel tired or recycled. As much as I can wax poetic him, I think Pan’s Labyrinth is considered among most of his fans as the director’s best.

1. Fairy Tale

        As probably a textbook example of obtuse assumption, I thought that the film was mostly in English. Far back as I remember I’ve seen commercials of the film and I thought that there was English dialogue being said. Unfortunately, I was wrong with that presumption. So I sheepishly turned on the captions to understand what was being said and to understand the story. 

        This is an interesting one, considering that mostly what I’ve covered has its shares of scares and what not. This one feels more escapist, considering that this takes in Spain during World War 2. During the Spanish Civil War, we follow a young girl Ofelia who, along with her pregnant mother are brought into a camp led by Captain Vidal. An avid reader, she soon becomes embroiled within a fantasy world. 

        If there’s a word that I can use to describe the somewhat disturbing imagery is that it’s a beautiful macabre. Nothing is too gruesome or disgusting, everything feels terrifying but it’s somewhat interesting to look at that. It’s one aspect where you must commend Del Toro due in part that everything fantasy wise is through the perspective of a young girl. She isn’t terrified but just curious with how she communicates with the mantis bug that transforms into a fairy. 

        With how it’s handled within the movie, it’s just seamless between the tensions among the fascistic Vidal and the Spanish freedom fighters. One would think that everything we see when Ofelia sees Faun and the other creatures is just in her imaginative head. It feels that way since it’s usage feels more like a therapeutic considering the main character’s circumstances. I’ll delve into that in a moment. 

2. Real World

        Aside from the fairy tale that is the central part of the film, I love how it breaks it up to focus on the Captain’s war of attrition against the rebels. I love how in one way, it’s not just scenes with him finding the mole that helps the resistance. It would’ve been too easy to just have it but not connect with the overall theme of the movie. And that’s basically rebellion. 

        We see it when we’re first introduced to Ofelia and her mother. She has among her pack of books, a fairy tale book. One that makes her mom remind her that she’s way too old to read that specific material. In one way, whenever we follow Ofelia talk to the creature Faun, there’s certain rules that she follows that gets her closer to fulfilling a prophecy. While in the real world, there are no rules since everything is against common sense and empathy when Vidal is prideful.

        When we have moments where we’re in the camp, it certainly still retains that fairy tale aspect. When Ofelia talks to the housekeeper named Carmen, she’s like the godmother to the young girl since she empathizes with her when she brings up seeing something that would be found during a fairy tale. Even when Vidal confronts the girl, it’s like having him be the evil stepparent that has her constrained to be with her mother. 

        I really like the juxtaposition because we see through the eyes of a girl just how much awful the world is for her that her only sense of safety is a world that is so inhuman and weird that she is within her own realm of control. One more thing is that the film isn’t mostly for kids at all. From what I read is that it’s an adult-oriented fantasy film. Albeit, there’s no action or a moment when the fantasy world seeps into the real world as a means to stop a potential danger. What I will say is that the film is very dark and nothing is hold back. Especially with the main character, be prepared to shed a tear. 

3. Overall

        Among his other acclaimed works from Mexico to the United States, Pan’s Labyrinth is one of Del Toro’s best film. Bar none.