1000 Girls but NOT for Kids
by Flick Chick Vique
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Pan's Labyrinth conjures up 4 Red Vines for imagination out of control |
M. Night Shyamalan touted his last film, Lady in the Water as a bedtime story for adults. Now Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro has come along with an adult fairytale.
Both are writer/director hybrids that specialize in macabre fantasies filled with religious symbols and metaphors. But where M. Night failed miserably, del Toro soars to Academy Award heights! His latest film, Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) has made Oscar history without even winning a single thing. Why? Because it is the first fantasy film to ever be nominated as a Best Foreign Language Film. But that’s just the beginning. The film has also been nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Makeup and Best Art Direction! Phenomenal!
All that being said, I think you should know that Pan’s Labyrinth is the best movie you might not want to see.
Set in rural northern Spain, the movie opens with a pregnant woman and her young daughter making the journey to join the woman’s new husband. It’s 1944 and Franco’s fascist regime is in full repression mode, though rebels continue to attempt an overthrow. The young girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) struggles to cope with not only the loss of her father but her adjustment to a sadistic stepfather as well. She intermittently retreats to a fairytale life, guided by a mythical creature she calls a faun (Pan). The creature tells her that if she can complete 3 tasks, she will be able to return to her real life as a princess in an underworld kingdom.
The movie is being heralded as magical, inspired, beautiful. But be forewarned: it is a grotesque beauty. The historical portion of the film far outweighs the fantasy. And the reality is brutal. As Ofelia’s stepfather, Sergi López excels as the sadistic Capitán Vidal. The man is a sick monster and the graphic violence at his hands is truly too much to bear. My movie companion and I were both horrified and repulsed by some of the scenes. We had to look away.
More than that, the fantasy scenes weren’t much of an escape. Showing the courage of a Navy Seal, Ofelia encounters all manner of freaks in her quest to get back to her underground kingdom. These scenes were often as scary and tense as the real violence. As the resistance comes to a fever peak on her stepfather’s estate, her fantasy world harshly collides with reality. In the end audiences are left to their own to wonder if her fantasy was indeed a fantasy.
Horror fans might know del Toro as the writer/director of Hellboy, a cult favorite. But I became familiar with his work in 2001 when my mother and I went to see The Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo del diablo). That movie was set in the same era and place, but centered on a boy’s adventures in a haunted orphanage. I was blown away! That experience is what sold me on seeing Pan’s Labyrinth. At the time I had no idea del Toro made it as a sister movie to The Devil’s Backbone.
For all its horror, the movie is rich and has much to offer. All the performances were electrifying. Maribel Verdù as Mercedes, the head housekeeper with a big, breaking heart and a deadly secret is outstanding. Doug Jones (the only American in the cast) does a yeoman’s job bringing Pan and the Pale Man to life. And even if you can’t understand a word he’s saying (the movie is in Spanish with subtitles), you will be blown away by Pablo Adan, the voice of Pan and the story’s narrator. His voice has so much texture and emotion that much would have been lost if this had been dubbed! But carrying the weight of the world and the film is 12-year-old Ivana Baquero. del Toro auditioned 1000 girls to find his perfect Ofelia. She gives an amazing performance that even outshines adorable Abigail Breslin’s in Little Miss Sunshine.
When Pan’s Labyrinth was shown at the Cannes Film Festival it was given 22 minutes of applause! It is a haunting masterpiece that is not for the faint of heart. But if you have the courage, you will be rewarded with a rich, multi-layered experience. Watch it only if you dare.
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