Movie Rewind- Pan's Labyrinth
August 13th 2007 06:57
Dark, dreamlike and dangerous, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a fairytale every bit as scary and moving as they were always meant to be. In both the real world - civil war-riven Spain - and the fantasy underworld she discovers, our heroine Ofelia must battle against the most twisted, nightmarish evils to survive. Transcendent, passionate, full of beauty and endlessly affecting, this is without question the movie of the year.
Ofelia is journeying to meet her facist stepfather, a ruthless captain chasing leftists in the hills of Northern Spain, with her painfully pregnant mother in tow. Unknown to Ofelia's stepfather, the leftists have secretly infiltrated his household. This electric intrigue elegantly ties into Ofelia's other, mythic, journey in which she follows an insect into a labyrinth and then receives quests and promises from Pan the mysterious faun. Ofelia's retreat offers no respite from the real-world danger and fear. Drenched in mud, blood, rain and tears, and met on all sides by skin-crawling creatures, she must rely on her wits and her heart to prevail.
(net sourced review by Jonathan Trout ),contains strong language and bloody violence
This is one of those movies in which I wasn't too sure what to expect and although I had heard of it before now, the basic story line was unknown to me. And as the movie opened with a military convoy winding its way through the Spanish hills, I was left wondering, 'Okay this might be interesting?' But the movie flowed well and everything just slotted into place without the obvious explanations that the average American movie suffers from.
The camera angles, lighting and sets all create another time in which you become absorbed into as you follow the story of the main characters. Now this is a pretty dark fairy tale and the violence is graphic and realistic, so I wouldn't let young children watch this. It must be said though that this is a clever piece of film making, as there are two stories happening within the movie. The first is the world that Ofelia finds herself drawn into and the second is the battle between the facist's and the left wing guerillas. These two separate sub plots intertwine so well with each other that when something bad is going to happen, you feel for the characters which are going to be exposed to the danger.
This movie also won some bafta awards too. So over all not a bad movie, its something quite different, very dark and grim in places, with the odd scene here and there that make you say 'Bloody hell'. Doubt if its one that I would watch again but well worth seeing once as the imagination, direction, attention to detail is just amazing.
kiwiauthor rating 7/10
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