Synopsis:

In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

Brian's Rating: A : Guillermo del Toro is quickly becoming my favorite director.  The story of Pan's Labyrinth is good, but not great.  The script is decent, and the acting is good.  However, what really sets this movie apart from others is how it is presented.

The story is told in two parts.  The first is a story set in 1944 immediately following the Spanish Civil War.  A brutal captain is put in charge of rooting out the remaining resistance fighters.  His wife and step-daughter Ofelia is brought into this situation so he can be present at the birth of his child.  The second part is of a fantasy world where a princess of the underworld kingdom runs away to the mortal realm and dies.  The king awaits the rebirth of his daughter and her eventual return.

The juxtaposition of these two stories happens with the girl, Ofelia, who discovers an insect she believes to be fairy, and is eventually revealed to be just that.  The fairy leads her to a faun, who gives her three tasks to accomplish that are connected to the return of the princess, the lost daughter of the underworld king.

The story revolves around her completing these three tasks, the captain trying to end the resistance, and Ofelia's mother who has complications in her pregnancy.  The method in which these three story arcs are brought together is the reason why this film is great.

One last thing about his directing style.  I very much like how he lays out some of the individual shots.  An example of this is in the very beginning of the movie where there is a girl lying on the ground bleeding.  We are shown a close up of her face, and the motion is run in reverse as we see the blood slowly return to the nose, as the camera zooms into her eye, as if entering a portal into the fantasy back story that is about to be related.  Another smaller example is a camera shot we see of the stick insect/fairy as it watches the caravan of vehicles drive by.  An extreme closeup of the insect along with the shot centered on the vehicles, both in focus.  I do not know why, but this is a cool effect.  I saw a similar shot a couple of times in "The Orphanage", and was equally impressed.

Scott told me that it was not as good as "The Orphanage", and I agree with him on that.  However, I still think it is one of the better films I have seen this past year.

The Freak's Rating: B- : In our annual quest to see as many Academy Award nominees as possible close to Oscar time, Jen & I tripped up to the twin cities to screen Pan's Labyrinth.  Fitting in with "my crowd", we absorbed this adult fairy tale in an optimal setting.

The style of Guillermo del Toro cannot be disputed.  PL is beautiful in every way.  Set design is fantastic, lighting amazing and cinematography and CGI blending superb.  Visually, PL is superior to The Orphanage.  However, the storyline of The Orphanage was far more engrossing and entertaining.  So though I would recommend PL to anyone who hasn't seen it, if they are interested in an entertaining sampling of this style of film I would steer them to The Orphanage, a far better film in my opinion.

Sebastian's Rating: A : WARNING: may contain spoiler

When the ending credits scrolled down the television at the end of the movie. i didn't get it. The movie was soo well done but all that she went through, and then she gets shot.

See this is a movie you have to think about. you have to think about everything. Just like a fairytale, you have to put aside the story, and look for the moral. and this is what i love about this movie.

Anyone looking for a strange evening of mystical beasts and WW11, bring along a couple of friends, you'll be talking about this one for a while.

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