Chez Shaffner

Friday, January 26, 2007

Review: Pan’s Labyrinth

* * * * * If you’ve seen only the previews on television, you will be grossly unprepared for the pervasive darkness of Pan’s Labyrinth. Disturbing as the character with eyeballs in his palms may be when shown for five seconds in the trailer, I certainly imagined the fantasy aspects of this film as a form of escape for Ofelia (a strong performance from young Ivana Baquéro). Unfortunately, the poor girl has no such luck. The fantasy world of fauns and princesses offers her a slender ray of hope, but to reach it she must navigate several horrendous trials, from retrieving a golden key from the belly of a giant toad to facing down the aforementioned creature.

Throughout the film, watch for intersections between fantasy and reality. One cannot so easily dismiss the fantasy as pure escapism; the chalk on the wall, the mandrake beneath her mother’s bed, and the soiled dress are all too real to dismiss. Think about that when you reach the ending...

Visually arresting and keenly acted from start to finish, Pan’s Labyrinth seems a virtual lock on the upcoming foreign film Academy Award. It’s well deserving of such accolades, but first and foremost, this is a thriller. The tension swirled my guts from the first moment Ofelia and her mother arrive at the converted mill lorded over by Capitán Vidal all the way to the credits. I left the theatre trained and dumbstruck.

Capitán Vidal (portrayed masterfully by Sergi López) is one evil motherf#%&er. More than once my thoughts wandered to the scene in Schindler’s List when Ralph Fiennes picks off random concentration camp victims from his balcony. I remember watching that film in a packed theatre in Bangor, Maine, thinking that I could not have imagined such evil possible, in life or film. Well, Pan’s Vidal is one of the cruelest, most vile characters ever to grace the silver screen. We spot only minor cracks in his armor, such as the moment while shaving when he pantomimes slitting his own throat or later, when he stitches sutures.

Ultimately, the film’s second heroine, guerilla-conspirator-cum-head-servant Mercedes (well portrayed by Maribel Verdú), nearly saves Ofelia, but arrives too late. The ending, which I will not spoil for you today, was so much nastier than I could have anticipated. Brutal, dark, and almost happy.

This movie receives a perfect rating of 5 shaffners…

IMDB.com profile.