Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
2/11/07
I've seen movies juxtapose
the events of World War II with sci-fi, fantasy or horror in the past,
usually because of our endless desire to see Nazis get theirs, and if they
do it at the hands of fantastic creatures, all the better. But I've
never seen it done so skillfully as in Guillermo del Torro's Pan's Labyrinth,
which merges a story of the last days of the Spanish Civil War with a fairy
tale story about a little girl trying to escape to her fated place in a
magical kingdom. Both stories are really about the same, old-fashioned
lesson: the importance of doing the right thing, no matter how hard
it is.
Young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero)
seeks solace in books filled with fairy tales. Spain is in turmoil,
and her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) has married the cruel Captain Vidal
(Sergi Lopez). Carmen is pregnant with the Captain's child, and he
has the women brought on a perilous trip to his headquarters so his son
can be born in his presence, indifferent to the damage the journey has
done to the mother. One night, Ofelia is lead by an insect that becomes
a fairy into an ancient labyrinth. There she meets Pan (Doug Jones),
a faun who tells her that she is the reincarnation of a fairy-tale princess
who can reclaim her place at her father's side in a land far, far away.
All she needs to do is complete three increasingly arduous tasks.
Meanwhile, she befriends Mercedes (Meribel Verdu), a servant who's really
part of the rebel army hiding in the hills. Can the rebels defeat
the Captain's forces? And why is Pan so interested in Ofelia's soon-to-be
born baby brother?
If you'd told me going in
that Pan's Labyrinth is roughly 60% WWII thriller and 40% fantasy
adventure, I'd have heard warning bells, but it's amazing how well-told
both halves of the story are. Captain Vidal is a totalitarian villain
for the ages, his random cruelty expressing a deep, disturbing need to
live up to his father's legacy. General Vidal died on the
battlefield and smashed his watch at that precise moment so that his son
would know not only when he died, but how to die, and the younger
Vidal clutches that broken timepiece as the moments until his inevitable
demise tick-tick-tick away ominously on the soundtrack. Lopez's performance
is sensational.
While the two halves of the
story never really meet (not to give anything away, but the reason why
they fail to meet in the closing moments is critically important to understanding
what's just happened), they still combine to create one fully-realized
tale. Del Toro has crafted an extraordinary meditation on the purpose
and importance of fairy tales. We often wonder why the imagery in
those old stories is so harsh and disturbing, but they come from times
when the world was a much harsher place. And when Spain is consumed
by violence and evil, the same lessons that allow Ofelia to navigate the
labyrinth toward her destiny are the ones that will lead the rebels to
freedom. Our virtues may seem inconvenient in our darkest hours,
but they also become indispensable.
The look and feel of Pan's
Labyrinth (or “El Laberinto del Fauno”, the actual on-screen title
which translates as “The Labyrinth of the Faun”) are remarkable.
The goat-like Pan and a malignant giant toad look like they've walked out
of our childhood imaginations, while the Pale Man, an eyeless zombie-like
creature who sees out of the palms of his hands, lurches out of our adult
nightmares. I honestly wondered why Ofelia is tempted to eat the
creepy-looking food on the Pale Man's table, but fairy tales are filled
with children committing such obviously foolish transgressions. And
I really loved how the dark, filthy catacombs and tunnels that fill the
fairy-tale world seem to occupy the same reality as the war-torn landscapes
above.
Baquero is outstanding as
Ofelia, a role that calls for levels of horror and despair child performers
rarely have to summon. I also liked the maddening obliviousness Gil
projects as her mother, particularly given where that failure to believe
leads her. Verdu makes a courageous and upstanding rebel, and Jones
is profoundly creepy both as Pan and the haunting Pale Man.
Del Toro has been a reliable
director of crowd-pleasing horror flicks like Blade 2 and Mimic
for the last decade, but here he's working at a whole new level.
His intelligent, artful screenplay also benefits from an above-average
job of translation on the subtitles (the movie is Mexico's nominee for
the Foreign Language Film Oscar).
Be warned-despite its' child
star and fairy tale story, Pan's Labyrinth is not for kids.
It's a dark, violent story about the ways fantasy and hope help bring out
the best in us in troubling times. It's also uncommonly moving and
uplifting. |
