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PAN'S LABYRINTH Send This Review to a Friend
Number one on my 2006 best list, “Pan’s Labyrinth” is the most unusual and accomplished film of the year, a mix of fantasy and grim reality that provides a stunning metaphor for the legacy of Franco Spain and the ongoing battle to eradicate it. The amazing thing is that much of it unfolds as a fairy tale in the mind of a child and is deftly and imaginatively interwoven with a suspenseful story of oppression and resistance. This is great filmmaking, as was widely recognized when it closed the recent New York Film Festival.
Mexican writer-director Guillermo Del Toro, whose work includes “The Devil’s Backbone,” spins an engrossing tale. Ofelia, a young girl of about 11 and charmingly played by Ivana Baquero, is resentful of her stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergí Lopenz), a ruthless officer charged with stamping out pockets of anti-Franco resistance still operating in the Spanish countryside in 1944. Ofelia’s mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), is married to Vidal, a result of her seeking stability in the male-dominated culture, and she is pregnant with what the macho captain is certain to be a son to carry on his family name. Ofelia has her own method of coping—building an elaborate fantasy involving creatures and tasks she is given to do in her imaginary world.
Del Toro soars in visualization of Ofelia’s thoughts and dreams, as well as in depicting the labyrinth into which she wanders as her mysterious refuge near the abandoned old mill that the captain has set up as his headquarters and military base for his soldiers. A key character in the drama is the captain’s housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), whose brother is in the resistance. She is sympathetic to Ofelia, as well as a key to how the plot develops.
The drama builds forcefully, with some brutal scenes necessary to define the battle between the Franco army and those who defy it. How the director moves the drama along with the intersecting of Ofelia’s magical world and the harsh reality of the horror going on around her is superb filmmaking.
Rich in detail and conception, “Pan’s Labyrinth” mounts intensifying suspense. While conveying its built-in metaphorical message involving freedom from fascism, the film simultaneously soars as art. So much is original about the story, visuals and intricate construction that Del Toro’s work consistently dazzles. Guillermo Navarro, the director of photography, and Eugnio Caballero, the production designer, as well as all those involved in the special effects, deserve great appreciation for their input, which is so integral to the overall triumph. A Picturehouse release.
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