pan's labyrinth

guillermo del toro's (hellboy, blade II) latest film, pan’s labyrinth, is set during the spanish civil war and depicts the battle between resistance fighters and the oppressive rule of franco’s spain, entangled with a young girl’s fantasy world. the girl, ofelia (ivana baquero) is the daughter of a woman who is carrying captain vidal’s (sergi lopez) son, and ofelia’s real father is now dead. ofelia and her mother travel to captain vidal’s camp so that her mother can give birth, and we are immediately shown what an awful man captain vidal is, particularly to ofelia. when left on her own, ofelia’s imagination (or is it?!) runs wild as she lives out the kind of stories we see her read about in her fairytales. one of the servants at captain vidal’s headquarters, mercedes (maribel verdu, y tu mama tambien) shows ofelia the garden/labyrinth she returns to and where most of the fantasy sequences occur. throughout the film, ofelia’s mother tells her that she may be getting too old for the fairytales she enjoys and when her mother becomes very angry with her, informs her that magic does not exist. however, magic acts as ofelia’s way of understanding the ‘real’ world of spain in 1944. and we are never lead to believe that this magical fantasy world is disconnected or solely in ofelia’s mind. one scene in particular where this is demonstrated is when captain vidal finds the root monster under ofelia’s mother’s bed. ofelia has been instructed by a fantasy creature to put it there because it will make her mother better. when captain vidal finds it, he is furious but ofelia’s mother insists on dealing with the situation. she ends up throwing the root into the fire, and immediately afterward, becomes ill. the film sets up a dichotomy between those who blindly follow rules (captain vidal and his army) and those who think for themselves (the resistance fighters, ofelia, etc), good and evil, love and hate, and other binaries that structure many children’s tales. by setting this against an historical event, and seamlessly wandering between the two worlds, del toro seems to suggest that children have the clearest perspective on the world and that perhaps their simplistic view of things is a lens more adults should adopt. ofelia is challenged in both worlds to make choices that will inevitably have a larger impact. she makes both right and wrong decisions and learns from them, something captain vidal never seems be capable of. the typical tropes of fairytales are employed in this violent, historically informed, and decidedly adult film to refreshing ends, while maintaining its integrity as a moral tale. as a note of warning, this film is violent, gory, and intense; therefore making it a fairytale not suitable for children. (i was covering my eyes more than once throughout). as for the aesthetic, the cgi in this film is fairly flawless. clearly realism is not a concern in the fantasy sequences, but i was completely drawn into the world of fairies, fauns, and various monsters because of the wholeness of the fantasy del toro and his team construct. the fantasy was as consistent as the reality; something i feel is important given the film requires a belief in the two respective worlds and their interconnectivity. i definitely recommend this film.

watch the trailer