Pan's Labyrinth

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

I haven't really stopped thinking about it since I saw it two days ago and I've had some seriously whacked (and wonderfully horrific) dreams since.

With my love of fairy tales, mythology, fantasy and horror I was pretty sure I'd love the film, and I loved it more than I even expected. I think it's one of the best films ever made, regardless of genre, with one of the most honest, sincere and beautiful performances by a child actress. And the supporting adults, particularly Sergi López and Maribel Verdú. (I hardly recognized him from Dirty Pretty Things, or her from Y Tu Mama Tambien) were remarkable.

From the moment the narrator's voice was heard, I was hooked. So lyrical. The story immediately took route in my spine.

Magic was her way of escape (however you want to interpret its realness), but the film wasn't escapist at all. The fantasy world was as frightening as Franco's Spain.

Spoiler:

And though I can fully accept Ofelia's fantasy as being real, I prefer my gut reaction, which was that it all came from her imagination, her return to the Underworld being the last thought she had in death. I can see it both ways, and both are supported, but my way of thinking - not being spiritual or religious, but quite the escapist - the sadder reality works better for me. Her story was a tragedy, though the film still ends uplifting. Because whether or not I believe the fantasy as real, her character did. And she believed she was returned home and reunited with her family...so she was. I still mourned her death.

It was a brutal and beautiful film. Haunting score. A perfect surrealist fantasy. I found no fault with the script, the art, the history or the performances. I was in awe. GDT is my BFF 4-eva!