Pan's Labyrinth

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

A movie you won't soon forget, Pan's Labyrinth is the brilliant Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's (Hellboy, Blade II) masterpiece. Here is a haunting, but beautifully conceived mix of fantasy and reality that is like no film released in 2006ÿor any other year. Basically a gothic fairy tale set in the very un-fairy tale like period of the Spanish Civil War, the film centers around the sad, lonely world of a unique little girl (Ivana Baquero) whose life is turned around when she is moved to a rural military outpost by her new stepfather. Unable to cope with the very real demons of Spain's repressive dictatorship, she retreats into an old garden with unending winding paths where she is able to create a dark fantasy world containing very different kinds of monsters and fanciful creatures. Del Toro is definitely trying to merge many themes found in fairy tale environments with the sad, brutal, cold-hearted facts of everyday life, especially in much of the world where freedom exists only in the imagination. As a filmmaker, his visual sense is unparalleled and this Labyrinth of sound and color must have seemed like a sandbox to play in. Not working with a huge budget, Del Toro has created a film that looks ten times more expensive than it is, and puts many Hollywood blockbusters to shame. Although both worlds it depicts are sometimes violent and brutal, at its heart Pan's Labyrinth is ultimately a complex statement of hope as seen thru the eyes of youth.