“Only the Wind and the Trees”
Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) – A Review
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Pan’s Labyrinth begins as a young girl, Ofelia, travels with
her pregnant mother to the rural mountain area of Spain. They are to meet her new
stepfather, a rather cold and sadistic captain in charge of a military post
fighting off the remaining guerilla rebels from the civil war hiding up in the
mountains.
Ofelia is a very imaginative little girl, she spends her
time reading books; fairy tale books to be exact. She has always believed in
the fair and the magical, and on the first night, a fairy comes to her and asks
her to come with her to the nearby ancient labyrinth.
At the bottom of a well inside the labyrinth, she is greeted
by a fawn. He tells her that she is the spirit of the underworld’s king’s daughter,
and that the whole kingdom has been waiting for her return for a very long
time.
However, things are not as easy as they seem to be. To make
sure that she has not completely changed into a mortal, she has to pass three
tasks before the full moon comes.
At this point on, you will probably have realized that Pan’s
Labyrinth is a fairy tale. But don’t get it wrong, it is not a fairy tale for
the kids, oh no. Not with the amount of violence involved in it.
The story then continues with Ofelia’s adventure in
completing the tasks. But that’s not the only thing this movie offers. One of
the maids in the military post is actually an informer helping the guerilla
rebels. Also, Ofelia’s mother is getting more and more ill by the minute, and
things are not looking good for her and the baby. Moreover, the rebels are
getting more reinforcements and are readying themselves to attack the military
post.
Ofelia’s journey story is intertwined beautifully with the
drama and violence surrounding her. Will she be able to complete the entire
tasks she’s been assigned to do? Or does she even want to return to her magical
kingdom, if it even existed?
Pan’s Labyrinth is a very beautiful movie. The setting is
very imaginative, and captures the sense of fairy tale without appearing as if
it was made for a children movie. Moreover it also succeeds in making the whole
look rather gloomy at the same time. For a non Hollywood movie,
the special effect and sound are also seamless. Freaky creatures are abound,
and so is gore. Expect to see torture, headshots, and many death in this
colorful epic. The soundtrack/score is also astounding, and you will find
yourself humming the lullaby even after you have left the theatre (assuming you
watch it in one - stop downloading!).
Ofelia is played well as this endearing Alice in Wonderland-esque little girl. Other
notable performance is Mercedes the maid, she basically steals every scene she
is in. The captain is believably sadistic and cold, but not with a reasonable
background.
This is a pretty long movie (almost 2 hours), but you can
barely feel the length because of the editing. Scenes are often not very long,
with many jumps to the different storylines, to keep the audiences’ interest.
This makes the movie unfolds in a constant flow, rolling out the suspense and
the magic little by little, keeping you waiting whatever things that will
happen next.
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Verdict:
It’s a beautiful, touching, bloody fairy tale for the grown ups. Do I need to say more? 8.5/10.
