Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) - Guillermo del toro

"Innocence has a power evil cannot imagine" It is the solemn duty of a film to transport its viewer into another dimension having interwoven layers of illusions and realities, where one can momentarily live a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment. However, it is wishful thinking to expect a movie to give a illusionary make-over to reality, and simultaneously have the surreal put on the cloak of the real. Pan’s labyrinth is one of the very rare movies that make this expectation more tangible as it takes us on a tour of dreams while keeping our feet firmly planted in reality...

It is the solemn duty of a film to transport its viewer into another dimension having interwoven layers of illusions and realities, where one can momentarily live a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment. However, it is wishful thinking to expect a movie to give a illusionary make-over to reality, and simultaneously have the surreal put on the cloak of the real. Pan’s labyrinth is one of the very rare movies that make this expectation more tangible as it takes us on a tour of dreams while keeping our feet firmly planted in reality.

The film commences with the narrator talking about two different worlds – a surreal one in which a princess of an underground realm has escaped in order to experience the mortal life on earth and succumbed to death to the agony of her mournful father who is waiting for her return; And the other set in a very turbulent post civil war Spain in which the sanguinary Franco regime is fighting off its enemies – the revolutionary Guerillas hiding in the hills of Spain.

Ofelia, a young girl, who seeks refuge in her fairy tale books, is travelling with her pregnant mother to her new stepfather’s (a captain in the fascist Franco regime) base, where she comes across a fairy-like mysterious creature that leads her into a labyrinth. At the center of the maze, she meets with a strange faun, who reveals that Ofelia is princess of the underground realm and she must return to her own world. Prior to her emigration, she is given her three herculean (for a ten year old) tasks by the faun to complete in order to ascertain that her spirit is intact before she can be reunited with her family. Thus her fanciful journey commences as she faces ordeals in the two worlds she inhabits.

Back in the real and ruthless world, Ofelia’s authoritarian stepfather, who is perhaps a reincarnation of Satan, is mercilessly hunting down the rebels opposed to the Fascist regime’s dictatorship. Ofelia is terrified of the man who only wants one thing – a son to carry on his bloodline and is vicious to everyone around him. Ofelia’s only source of comfort is the kind-hearted caretaker Mercedes (Maribel Verdu in a very sober avatar), who is apparently aiding the rebels.

In her quest for her own nirvana to attain her salvation, Ofelia dodges grotesque creatures in the surreal world to complete the tasks assigned to her, while she faces the demon of a stepfather, who hates her as much as she hates him. Here Del Toro creates two parallel worlds, the real world seemingly more sinister than its surreal counterpart, magnified by the images of death, torture and inherent human decadence, juxtaposed with flashes of compassion and love that have become symbolic of humanity in adversity.

However, misery catches up with her. While she is carrying out one of her tasks, she breaks a rule, provoking the faun’s wrath who declares that she cannot return to her kingdom anymore. Additionally, her mother dies of a complication during the childbirth to add to her woes further, and she is left at her father’s mercy. The captain also finds out the truth about the mole in his camp – Mercedes – and prepares to torture her in order to get information out of her regarding the rebel movement when something unexpected occurs. Does he manage to do so? If not, what happens to Mercedes? Does Ofelia escape her miserable trap and return to her kingdom?

The movie takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of part-fantasy, part-reality as the answers are revealed gradually with plenty of bizarre twists. The fantastic mise-en-scene seamlessly blends the reality with fantasy in such a way that if one was to shut his eyes momentarily and open them every few minutes, it would be hard to figure out which aspect of existence is being dealt with. Reality coalesces with hallucination to create a mutant layer of supernatural realism that captures the best and worst in the most unlikely of characters.

Even though the main protagonist is a girl yet to step into her teens, the theme is predominantly addressed towards adults (manifested by the R-rating), who will not only reminisce about “Alice in Wonderland”, and “The Wizard of Oz”, but ruminate on the profundity of the film’s message, which almost borders on brutal and harsh. Guillermo Del Toro may have wanted a fantastic beast of a movie outwardly (like Hellboy that he directed earlier), but he wanted to shake up the imagination of his viewers with a strong current of reality flowing within its arteries – the result of which is a gruesome monster-like creation with human voice and character.

Ivana Baquero carries most of this movie on her frail but trustworthy shoulders as Ofelia. Kudos to her – it is a formidable ask of such a young actor to be able to get into the skin of the fearless, mature, yet in many ways childish protagonist (reminds one of Hermoine in Harry Potter sans the confidence and wit). She defies simple orders yet cares for her ailing mother so lovingly and weaves such beautiful stories to tell her unborn stepbrother that one wonders how even such wonderful imagination embeds more wisdom in it than verses of spiritual texts.

Maribel Verdu, formerly seen in steamy roles sheds her sultry seductress image but not her clothes (remember Y tu mama tambien?), and delivers a powerful performance as the emotional and considerate caretaker, who has multiple dimensions to her character that unfold slowly. Sergi Lopez may not have been used to playing such clearly defined roles (he was predominantly into comedy and melodrama), but his performance is potent enough to convince us of the presence of sheer evilness in men, sometimes to the degree of psychopathic madness.

The adjective “GREAT” doesn’t do justice to this movie’s description. Joe Morgenstern, from the Wall Street Journal sums it up well though – “The result of the intricate interplay is a fairy tale for adults that is violent, sometimes shocking, yet utterly engrossing. And eerily instructive; it deepens our emotional understanding of fascism, and of rigid ideology's dire consequences.” Fairy tale it is, but not your run-of-the-mill fantasy that you can nonchalantly indulge in – as much as it is entertaining, it is didactic to the same measure.

Step aside LOTR, Harry Potter and Narnia, it’s time for Pan’s Labyrinth to be crowned the king of this genre – and that’s saying a lot!

Pan's Labyrinth - A look inside the movie