It’s weird for me to do two reviews in one day, especially when the last film I reviewed shares many similarities. Both are treats for your eyes, Both are from 2006 and both of them are about a story within a story in a way. But I’m not here to compare movies, I’m here to review them!
Pan’s Labyrinth was Guillermo Del Toro’s dream project, it was a film that almost killed him, he lost a lot of weight, he wanted this movie to be done his way. Producers offered him more money to make the movie in English, but he refused as he wanted the film to be in his native language of Spanish. He once left his journals of his thoughts for the film and his creative ideas in a cab in Mexico and the cab driver actually seeked him out, to return the items to him, and Del Toro took that as an omen that he needed to make this movie.
Pan’s Labyrinth takes place in Spain in 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world. It’s definitely a beautifully told story, and beautifully shot. I could praise it in writing, but you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this movie is 2 hours long… so thats a lot of words.
As I previously stated, the film is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, i say directed loosely, as I consider Del Toro more of a storyteller, than a director. He takes me to a fantasy world, and keeps me there intrigued and ready to be taken on the adventure he has waiting for me. I feel like this with most of his films, his other films that he’s directed are Blade II(2002), Hellboy(2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army(2008), Pacific Rim(2013) and Crimson Peak(2015). I think that he’s just a really brilliant director, he likes his films to look a certain way and they always look very unique. He uses an interesting filter, and his films are always very visually pleasing. This is definitely, in my opinion, his magnum opus.
Honestly, I won’t be going into detail about the actors, as I’ve never heard of any of them. But I will give serious praise to the little girl who played Ofelia. She was a wonderful actress who did an absolutely fantastic job in this movie. I don’t know for sure if she went on to do anything else. I think that the woman who played Mercedes was great as well. Its not a bad thing, that I haven’t heard any of these actors, but since they played such an amazing role in this film, I’d be intrigued to see a film by them now, as it was made 10 years ago.
I think something that needs to be noted is the hauntingly wonderful soundtrack. I find myself sometimes humming the “theme song,” to the film. I put theme song in quotes because I don’t know for sure whether it actually is the theme song, but they used it in the trailer and the used it a lot throughout the movie… so yeah theme song! But the whole soundtrack is wonderful, its very fitting for a such a marvel of a movie.
I don’t have one negative thing to say about this film, its always a movie I can watch and get swept away in. Its a fairy tale for adults, definitely not recommended for a younger audience.
Go into it with an open mind, get caught up in it, and just enjoy it.
Pans Labyrinth gets a 5/5 from me, and it will always be wonderful.
Until next time!
-Andrew