El Laberinto Del Fauno

Or, for us English speakers, Pan's Labyrinth. Shari and I watched this movie Saturday night and I have to say I was extremely impressed. I had heard nothing but good things about this adult fantasy fairy tale, so my expectations were pretty high. I was not disappointed. The film was so engaging that I wasn't distracted by the Spanish dialog and English subtitles, and by the end, I was so engrossed that I had forgotten about it completely.

IMDB does a good job of summarizing the plot as: "In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world."

The film is split between two worlds. The first is the violent, raw world that shows the realities of war as the army captain hunts rebels hiding in the hills. Some of the scenes were very violent (hence the R rating). While Shari found some parts too violent, I think they were well placed to contrast the harsh adult world with the second world, the fantasy world that young girl found in her new surroundings. This fantasy world was extremely well created, and the creatures and settings were all amazingly detailed. I must admit I was fascinated by these scenes and the new world that was created by director, Guillermo del Toro.

It was also interesting to see how the director used color to distinguish between the two worlds. I am no film or symbolism expert, but the reality of war was shown in a dull color pallet with splashes of blood red and the fantasy scenes were warmer in color. In addition, the girl was constantly showing up in green. Overall, this added to the distinction between the two sides of the movie.

I don't like giving away too much of a movie, so I'll stop here. I will just say that I believe that this was an excellent movie, one of the best I've seen in quite a while. I'm actually on the fence with where to rate it, but I will give it 4 and a half stars and definitely recommend that you check it out. Also, if you do or have seen it, I would love to hear your opinions of the film and especially the ending which seems to have people divided.