Pan's Labyrinth

Looks like I am slowly turning my blog into my own personal movie review station.

I want to start off my saying that I have wanted to see this movie since it was in theaters, but, because it was a foreign film I knew I would have a hard time convincing TJ to go. He is not a subtitle kind of guy. The trailer intrigued me. Honestly I knew nothing of the plot (strange that I would want to see a movie based solely on effects--that seems to go against my very English teacher nature).

When I heard it was coming out on video, I knew I had to see it, so I placed it in our Q at Blockbuster.com. I placed it there a week before it came out and I moved it to space number one as soon as I could so that it would get here ASAP. Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone had that idea because it immediately was given the "very long wait" label (which means I would have to wait up to 6 weeks for it to get here). I waited a few weeks and got restless (although it did go from "very long wait" to "long wait"), so yesterday I took The Prestige back to Blockbuster and exchanged it for the only copy of Pan's Labyrinth that they had. (I love the Total Access thing--movies come by mail, you get them and then you can exchange them at the store for nothing--fantastic!).

I finally got the opportunity to watch it last night and it was worth the wait. It is a Spanish film with subtitles (which did not bother me in the least, although the guy at Blockbuster said many people put it back after hearing that)...and the effects were everything that I had hoped they would be. Turned out that the story was pretty good, too.

A girl (Ofelia) comes to a mill in Spain to live with her mom and her new step dad (who is an EVIL Spanish captain). The mill is next to an old labyrinth that intrigues her from the beginning (since she is into fairy tales and fables). One night a fairy visits her and takes her to the labyrinth where she meets a faun (Pan) who tells her she is the reincarnated spirit of the princess of the underworld and to prove that she has three tasks to complete. Between the tasks and dealing with her evil step dad and her sick mother she has quit a road ahead of her. I will admit that I watched some of it between partway opened fingers. Back off--I was alone, it was dark, and some of it was just downright creepy...like this, for example:

I really did enjoy this film. The story was moving and the character depth was evident. Even the faun who appears a bit menacing at first:

Grows on you as you find he really seems to care about Ofelia:

The soundtrack added to the film and it was never distracting. Too often films use too much music or music that is too loud. This was not the case here. The music was calm and yet mysterious all at the same time.

I do recommend this film to anyone. If you are going to watch it, be aware that it is a foreign film. I don't think that the dubbed English version would retain the charm of the original. (If you have ever seen the dubbed version of Life is Beautiful you know what I am talking about). I will own this film solely to have it because I do think it is one of the best works to come out of the last few years. Films don't have to have explosions and blatant nudity or foul language to be entertaining, and Pan's Labyrinth proves that hands down.

If you have seen it, I would like your thoughts, too. Let me know.