Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Early in Guillermo del Toro’s latest dark exploration of the Spanish Civil War, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl asks the matron of the house Mercedes(Maribel Verdú) whether she believes in fairies. Her answer is simply no.

The heroine Ofelia has journeyed deep into the forest with her pregnant mother to meet her garrisoned stepfather, the time obsessed, fascist army captain (Sergi López). Unbeknownst to the genocidal captain, his household has been infiltrated by the leftist resistance. Ofelia soon discovers this and is soon naturally siding with one of the infiltrators, Mercedes. The tense backdrop of violence, secrecy and intrigue is the perfect counterpart to the more fantastic aspect of Pan’s Labyrinth. On her arrival, Ofelia discovers an ancient labyrinth not far from the house and soon she is faced with a new acquaintance, Pan (Doug Jones), a faun who sets her tasks and makes her magical promises. Ofelia’s tasks are caked in blood, mud and dirt, foul insects and heart-stopping danger, but as wincing as her trials are, the real life dangers posed by her stepfather and his troops somehow exceeds all of this.

Nothing compels like the duality of emotions and Del Toro manages to an extent to capture the divisive destruction that only a civil war can bring in a fairytale. Ofelia finds herself torn between what she should and shouldn’t do, between a brutal reality and sick fantasy whilst Del Toro never misses and opportunity to squeeze an emotion from the viewer whether it’s a squeamishness, anger or disappointment. Pan’s Labyrinth as a fairytale is told efficiently and its effects are exquisite. Cinematically, Del Toro is never afraid of using the dark or bringing his skills from other genres to new ones and in this case he’s brought some clearly benefits from Hellboy.

There have been suspicions that the film is too lavishly grotesque for children and possibly too simplistic for adults and to an extent this is true which does beg the question, who is this movie for? Labyrinth also sends a confusing moral message through Ofelia who is at heart disobedient not only to her stepfather but also to Pan. If Ofelia is political symbol of the leftist resistance, then the message is clear: that we can only ever choose one version of authority over another. If this is true then the aftertaste is bitterly dystopic.

Perhaps the film achieves what all good fairytales do in the end, but as magical as it the story is to watch, you do wonder if this is a fairytale you could ever tell your children and surely isn’t that the point of fairytales?