Pan’s Labyrinth

An exquisitly woven blend of two tales a spellbinding creation of the ultimate escapist's world.

Billed as a ‘Horror fantasy’, Pan’s Labyrinth is nothing less than a masterpiece of storytelling and the cinematic craft. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II), who also wrote the flawless screenplay, is a master of his craft and Pan’s Labyrinth his break away from big budget Hollywood epics, and into the sort of film a talented director at the top of his game would choose to make.

This is one movie you’d be wise not to judge by its cover. It is part gothic horror, although there a few truly frightening scenes. It is part a childhood fairytale, though there’s nothing in this flick remotely suitable for children. It is part a struggle for freedom against tyranny, and it is a tale of the extremes humans are capable of reaching to achieve their desires.

Set in Spain during Franco’s brutal regime in 1944, Pan’s Labyrinth plots two tales running in parallel. Each seemingly worlds apart.

The shockingly brutal background is Franco’s Spanish fascist regime fighting for its survival. An utterly evil military commander, Captain Vidal (played convincingly by Sergi Lopez), rules over a small village. He, and his henchmen, are brutal, cruel and regular off-the-shelf ‘Nazi bastards’. While Vidal’s purpose in the film is simply to deliver evil upon the innocent, his character, like all in this film, is artfully crafted with clear character and motivation.

Running throughout the film is Vidal’s running battle with the local resistance movement, aided by sympathisers from the village. It sets up a metronome pace of relentless acts of frequently shocking acts of barbarism and inhumanity as a backdrop. While Vidal’s sadistic cruelty casts a shadow of futility over the villagers, they still struggle on to find optimism within the nightmare.

Into the horror world arrives young Ofelia, a sweet child, and her Mother Carmen, pregnant with Captain Vidal’s son from an earlier non-consenting encounter.

Knowing that the unborn child’s survival is the only guarantee of staying alive in the war, Carmen and Ophelia are forced into a charade of playing family for Vidal, even though he treats them like rubbish.

There’s nothing but wall to wall tragedy in Pan’s Labyrinth, each character pushed to extremes, whether it be violence, or necessity of survival.

But, while this intense world, its events and characters fill the screen, a completely incongruous story comes into play.

It is amidst this dark world of trapped destinies, that Ofelia is visited on the first night by an elf, who takes her to meet Pan, a guardian of the underworld. Here begins a classically framed fairytale that works perfectly as both a complement to the real world action, and a frequently necessary distraction away from it.

Throughout the film neither story overshadows the other, and neither should technically be expected to work with the other. But they come together masterfully. You will be as gripped with each, and as things come together the true genius of the film becomes apparent.

Guillermo del Toro direction of Pan’s Labyrinth is sublime. The film runs a perilous gamut that would tempt many other directors to commit sins of schmaltz, but del Toro doesn’t put a foot wrong. When it really matter his control and measure come together to weave together a masterpiece that will invade your thoughts for many days after seeing it.

Every character in Pan’s Labyrinth is perfectly developed. What drives them is always as clear as the lengths each will go to in order to achieve their dreams. The screenplay (also by del Toro) is simple yet powerful. You’ll quickly forget this is a Spanish-language and English-subtitled film.

Maribel Verdú’s portrayal of Vidal’s housemaid Mercedes, is the star performance. She, in many ways, is more the crux of the film than young Ofelia, and much of the success of Pan’s Labyrinth can be attributed to her gutsy performance. 12 year old Ivana Baquero shoulders her load well enough, but spends so much of the film with the same wide-eyed, open mouthed expression that at times I wished for an actress with more emotive involvement.

The fantasy characters in the film are often freakishly bizarre, but never particularly horrific. They sit perfectly against the real world Ofelia endures in what increasingly becomes her second life. Nevertheless, this is not a film for young children. There is nothing ‘Neverending Story’ about this lot. As with most of Guillermo del Toro’s films, CG is used effectively and integrated with restraint. It is never shown-off for its own sake, though when GC characters do take centre stage they are done brilliantly.

In terms of attracting viewers, Pan’s Labyrinth is its own worst enemy. It defies tidy categorisation, it is want to put off fans of fantasy as it is fans of serious drama – for is it one, the other, or both? Can they successfully co-exist? It is an adult film with a child lead actor, always a risky proposition. And it is a foreign language film.

Despite all that Pan’s Labyrinth will in all likelihood go on to great things. It is a triumph of genre-blending and of original storytelling – none possible without del Toro’s mesmerising delicate creative hand. For one of the most impactful and satisfying film experiences of recent years, Pan’s Labyrinth delivers a treat of unexpectedly generous proportions.