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As long as this film centers on the vicious sadistic military Captain (a splendid performance by Sergio Lopez) and his relationship with his housekeeper, who has connections with the rebels who want to do him harm, this film is fascinating and horrifying and grimly funny. Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, the director/screenwriter Guillermo Del Toro has decided to muddy this gripping story with some sentimental nonsense about a little girl and her interaction with some mythical creatures including a fawn, some fairies, and that creature you’ll see in all the stills with his eyes in the palms of his hands.

See, the little girl’s mother is the Captain’s new wife. They’re all in Spain during WWII, the Captain is a Fascist leader trying to wipe out a bunch of Communist rebels, and they’re all living in some house in the middle of a forest that just happens to be infested with these rebels. The little girl, named Ofelia (get it?), is informed by a fawn (no, really, a fawn for Christ’s sake) that she is a lost princess from another world, and that she has to pass three tests in order to prove herself worthy, and I’m sorry but I’m getting bored writing about it.

Forget about the little girl. She’s probably the least interesting little girl who has every been expected to carry a movie and failed miserably. Her trials and tribulations have wowed a lot of people, especially the North American Film Critic Establishment (NAFCE) who have uniformly raved about this oddly tired and oddly unimaginative little film. The grownups, especially Sergio Lopez as the brutal but compelling Captain and Maribel Verdu as his housekeeper, are what the film is really about.

Lopez’ Captain is a memorable villain, but he’s more than that. Lopez never quite sinks into the obvious cliches of the psycho sadist. He trades them for a quiet conviction that is always convincing, never more so than during one memorable scene where he performs some emergency surgery on himself. Verdu’s equally quiet and convincing performance is every bit Lopez’ match. You just can’t take your eyes off her, she manages to make every moment live onscreen.

So why are people falling all over themselves to praise this flick? Beats the hell out of me. PAN’S LABYRINTH offers some easy reassurance about transcending suffering, all wrapped up with a message of self-sacrifice and some stuff about escape through fantasy, and people just lap this stuff up. Now I don’t mind me some reassurance about transcending suffering etc., but I just wish it had been done better. For a film about a girl’s escape into fantasy to help her deal with the horrors of the real world around her, I much preferred Terry Gilliam’s TIDELAND, a film that couldn’t expect to be embraced by the kind of folks who are swooning over PAN’S LABYRINTH. And there it is, for me, in a nutshell. PAN’S LABYRINTH is a Terry Gilliam film for people who don’t like Terry Gilliam films, who need the easy happy endings and reassurance that Gilliam relentlessly refuses to provide.

I loved this movie. The visual effects were beautiful and the story was compelling having a story within a story. Of the many great scenes in this movie I will always remember seeing that one officers face getting bashed in by a wine bottle which was disturbing to say the least. But I cant say enough about the visuals the monsters were life like almost looking as if they actually existed. If you didn’t like the movie that’s your beef, but nobody can dispute the look and realty of the mystical creatures in the film.

I disagree – though there is no point in arguing about this.. Either you were captured by the film or you didn’t- Sorry, I rate the movie as one of the ultimate classics, and sure one of my fav of all times.. And may be why I was schoked and surprised(!) that people commented badly about the pic..
The Whole of the movie is BRILLIANT- and the director weaves the colloration between known facist-types and unseen mythical horrors beautifully and remember it is a little girl’s point of view & so the powerful characters that dominates her world must be discovered in the matter of curiosity and patience.. In other words – Innocense is lost to the cynical
No pun,, Peace

Perhaps it was overhyped by the time I saw it, but I was totally overwhelmed. The non-fantasy parts were not particularly interesting (despite the excessive and unnecessary violence) and the fantasy bits were too few and far between. I also found that the characters acted in ways that would forward the plot but weren’t realistic to their characters. I just can’t believe the girl would take that grape from the table! But I guess the scene wouldn’t be nearly as scary if she didn’t. I enjoy Del Toro’s work but I have yet to see something that was a masterpiece (although the fact he made Blade 2 watchable is probably his greatest accomplishment to date).

(Originally written January 14, 2007)

The first third of Pan’s Labyrinth left me bored. The film had difficulty connecting the fascist regime of Spain to a young girl’s fantasy. There was not enough development of the story, and every time the camera panned to the wall, there would be transportation to another location, a transition attempting to connect completely unrelated subplots. The fantastical creatures were not particularly breathtaking, and the movie felt as if the ending was not going to be soon enough. However, the movie takes a turn for a better, as long as one understands that it is not the fantasy movie that it has been made out to be. Indeed, it has some brilliant sequences with its grotesque creatures. Some of the fantastical shots are mesmerizing with the audience feeling as if it is flying through the labyrinth, and the sequence with the eyeless monster is well-directed. However, this movie comes across more as a story of fascist oppression, more brutal than Schindler’s List. However, the use of violence was, at times, irresponsible. In the context of the film, it was unnecessary to watch a man stitch his sliced lip or a young man getting his face pounded in by a bottle. Although the film has an immediate grip on the audience, it is not particularly well-crafted with the main redeeming factor of its memorable visceral imagery. The effect of the film only lasts for a certain amount of time. It has been said by a critic that the film is a mixture of Lewis Carroll and Bunuel, and another said that it was the best film since The Wizard of Oz. The only problem is that Pan’s Labyrinth is being compared to humorous and/or playful pieces of art. Pan’s Labyrinth takes itself too seriously to be deserving of these comparisons. The film is extremely powerful, but its grip only lasts for so long after the person walks out of the theatre.

This is a beautiful tale about a child’s view of the real world. It’s a fantasy story set in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, and we can see the adults’ point of view of a world driven by violence, power-hunger, struggles, and vain desires, confronting the dreams of a girl whose imagination and innocence allow her to see fantastic creatures and live marvelous adventures which can only be experienced by her. It’s a tough reflection on our world, in which reality is so intense, so raw, that it ends up killing all hope and innocence in its way. Basically, this film sees adult life as a destructive force, rather than a guiding one for the next generations.