Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – on rental. I was away on my yearly in-camp training for the last week and now that I’m back, I’m just starting to catch-up on posts on films we’ve been catching prior to that stint and just recently. Pan’s Labyrinth was the first of two modern fantasy-esque films we caught back-to-back over the last weekend.
Pan’s Labyrinth is set in a 1940s civil-war-torn Spain, and tells the story of a Spanish girl Ofelia who finds a magical kingdom, and through her encounters with their denizens learns she’s actually the princess of the fantastic underground realm. Her own earthly dad has passed on, and her stepfather is an army Captain named Vidal who commands the garrison that’s occupied a large farm house near the portal to the kingdom. The Captain is tasked with the job of hunting down guerrillas forces, and the film juxtaposes between this fantasy realm and the grisly earthly one of a conflict-torn region.
If I had to describe the film in relative terms, it’d be this: if C. S. Lewis had written Chronicles of Narnia for an adult audience, Pan’s Labyrinth would be the result. Like Lewis’ Chronicles, Labyrinth‘s primary protagonist is a young child who discovers that her destiny lies in this magical kingdom accessible only through portals.
But the similarity ends there, because Labyrinth is not for kids. There are several counts of material that parents are going to have a hard time explaining to kids: like how the fantasy realm denizens – even for the relatively ‘good’ guys – look like horrific creatures out of your worst nightmare, or the brutal methods of Vidal when he goes about putting down the rebels, which include torturing and executing its members. The only cute elements in this film are the fairies which accompany Ofelia in her quest… until you get to the scene where a few of them get their heads bitten off and eaten up a monster. It’s CGed of course, but the scene is as I’ve described it – you see those poor pixie heads getting bitten off. Oh yeah – one key character gets his mouth sliced opened by a knife too.
Thing is, I didn’t find Labyrinth‘s story especially great. It’s serviceable but not really something you haven’t already seen before in other works in the fantastic genre both in film and the written word. But what makes the film special though after you put aside its story and several stomach-churning moments is the production and the cast. As grotesque and unconventional as the fantastic characters may look, they’re refreshing at least. Why should fantastic films only contain cute looking and talking beavers and sword-carrying mice?
More importantly too is the mesmerizing performance of young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero who plays Ofelia with a heart – she’s clearly destined for great things in acting – and actor Sergi López i Ayats who plays Vidal, the near-psychopathic career officer.
I don’t think Labyrinth is going to appeal to everyone. It’s certainly not good viewing for minors. But if you don’t mind a very adult version of fantasy, this film’s worth a watch, if nothing else for director Guillermo del Toro’s very distinct vision and willingness to be different in a semi-tired film genre.
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