REVIEW: Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

On Valentine's Day the other half and I went and saw Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) in at the Edward's Renaissance Theaters in Alhambra. The film has been nominated for six Academy Awards (Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Makeup and Best Art Direction) and is one of the most highly regarded films of 2006. It won BAFTA Awards on Sunday February 11th for Best Costume Design, Best Hair & Makeup and Best Film Not in the English Language.

The story is set in 1944's Spain, during the civil war against Franco's fascist regime. A young child and her pregnant mother have come to visit the mountain outpost of a brutal captain in Franco's Army and wait for the birth of the girl's brother (and the captain's son). The girl's name is Ofelia and she likes to read fairy tales.... Outside the outpost lies an ancient labyrinth which Ofelia is led to explore more frequently as life becomes more and more difficult living under the same roof with the man her mother says she should call 'father' who is fighting an increasingly desperate struggle with the guerilla rebels in the surrounding hills.

Guillermo Del Toro, the director, screenwriter and producer of Pan's Labyrinth has been giving interviews to multiple media outlets. He is one of a trio of Mexican directors (Alfonso Cuarón of Children of Men and Alejandro González Iñárritu of Babel are the others) who have Oscar-nominated and widely acclaimed films in theaters right now. In one interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Del Toro I heard today he admits that he believes in monsters and explains that the character of Pan (El Fauno) in Pan's Labyrinth is ambiguous: it can be interpreted as both good and evil, gurdian angel and personal demon. Del Toro also says "The movie is a fable, and adult parable really between choice and disobedience, and how disobedience is the threshold of responsibility. And how it is necessary for all of us to assert disobedience, socially."

Some of the images in the film are indelibly etched on the mind's eye: the grotesquely huge frog, the creature with eyes in its palms, the beautiful thrones in the penultimate scene and the way the Faun moves throughout this amazing film.

GRADE: A-.