Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

Grade: A-

Macabre to the point of grotesque, fanciful to the point of cinematic magic, writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s tour de force story of a young girl’s physical and spiritual escape from fascism is both weighed down by the reality of a dark, evil world and uplifted by a realm of existence that may lie beyond the cruelty of humankind.

Ivana Baquero gives the most complex child performance of the year, her huge brown eyes as filled with pain and terror as they are by simplicity and wonder. As a girl brought by her pregnant mother to live with a heartless and masochistic stepfather/army commander during the oppressive dictatorship of 1944 Spain, her beloved collection of fairy tales provides a survival mechanism that may or may not exist only in her mind. The world she discovers is as frightening and ghoulish as the world in which she lives, but it also provides the porthole to a much better place. Maribel Verdu displays tenderness and fearlessness with equal measure as a member of the resistance movement residing right under the commander’s nose, and Sergi Lopez breaks down the caricature and delivers a man who relishes torture yet is equally concerned with his personal legacy.

Riveting, thrilling, challenging and audacious, Del Toro’s brilliance lies in his ability to paint surreal landscapes on multiple planes of reality. The brutality of the earth is likely to make one wince in horror and watch hypnotized through spread fingers, yet it is a world portrayed as if through the lens of a funhouse mirror – gunshots jolt yet never rip through flesh quite as realistically as expected, blood flows yet never as freely as one would anticipate. Conversely, his underworld is surprisingly fiendish and horrific, and not quite the fantastical escape imagined or prepared for. Our heroine may be retreating into the recesses of her stories, but she may also be in a karmic battle for her soul. Del Toro allows us to decide this for ourselves, providing a storytelling balance that makes us doubt and believe in both worlds simultaneously. As with all great works, one leaves the theater with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the beliefs, worldviews and personal truths we have brought with us into the theater in the first place. Different minds will no doubt view the film’s meaning and message in very different lights, and the screenplay is so skillful you may not realize another perspective even exists.

A breathtaking, vibrating score by Javier Navarrete thrills and chills to the bones, and bewitching cinematography by Guillermo Navarro uses dark, brooding tones to radiate light. Visual effects terrify in wonderment.

Freedom and oppression are concepts of the mind, body and spirit. Del Toro captivates and enthralls in his ability to ruminate and illuminate in each one of these dimensions.
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More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0457430/