Pan's Labyrinth Review

Yesterday... Yesterday was seeing Pan's Labyrinth. Kristin and Kiwii went with me to see the movie at the Harbour Centre (Annapolis). We arrived relatively early and meandered around for a while. We went to the bookstore, where Kristin bought a few books (Augh... Good Omens and Complete Lewis Carroll?).

The movie was excellent. It is adult, it is rated R. Some people said it was very gory, which it certainly is not, but it is not free of violence or blood. There are three parts that would claim 'gore', but it is not like these Saw or Chainsaw Massacre movies, which are relatively akin to the pulp horrors of the 50s. It was, to say, necessary gore. It could have been done, cinematographically, differently but it was better this way. The audience understood it this way. The example I will use (and not be a spoiler) is when the Captain beats and kills a man with a bottle. We see him break his nose and smash it in. I would deem that more violent than gory. However, when watching it, remember that 1. This is NOT an American film and 2. It has violence and blood (and some gore).

I expected there to be more of the fantasy. While Ofelia is the main character, we get a lot more of the Spanish Civil War and the Captain, in some ways, than Pan and the fae. I think Gaiman (oh shut up, there are not many OTHER authors on blogs so I can't quote them, now can I??) said it best: 'an uncompromisinly adult film, with a child and her fairy tale inset into it as a contrast and echo.' There are two plots, really. I thought they would converge at one point (and that was slightly disappointing, but I will get to that later), but they never really do. There is the Captain (and his bastardness) with Ofelia's mother and Ofelia and her brother and then there is Ofelia and Pan and the fairies. The movie is mostly done through Ofelia, but we also see a lot of the Captain's view. That is, of course, interesting. As the villain, we should see less of him and more of Ofelia, but when we are in the real world with the Spanish Civil War, we see both Ofelia and the Captain. When we slip in the fairy world, we only see Ofelia. There are no 'only Pan' moments. We get Ofelia and that is it. Actually, for a movie called Pan's Labyrinth, it is not so much as based around the labyrinth itself. (Do not mistake me, for I love the fact that it is called that).

I loved the faun and the white man. I should actually stop calling the faun 'Pan' because I don't think he was named that. He was always just the faun. The white man was most interesting. Both were the same man, if I remember correctly... Yes, it was Doug Jomes who played them. I love the costuming for that. It was latex plus CGI-ed lower halves (if you look at the white man's lower half, it is extremely skinny and unhuman). The legs for both were made latex and they deleted Doug's legs, out of the picture. Very interesting and beautiful. Nothing was, I think, compeletely and utterly CGI. The fairies are the only thing. Everything else was latex - the frog, the captain's face... the mandrake was there, too. That makes me very pleased with Guillermo del Toro. It was done, special effects wise, how I think films should be done - anything that can be done (well) with latex and models and costumes, do so... anything else done by CGI. The imagery was wonderful (as an add-on, so was the music).

I found it interesting how I forgot about the sub-titles. Completely forgot. They were done well.

Now, the plotlines. This is most likely to contain a bit of spoilers (I will attempt to NOT make many, but I'll put the horrifically big ones in white). I thought that, in the end, Ofelia's world and the real world would collide. Interestingly, it never really did. Some people might be disappointed, I found it refreshing. It was nice for them to not, blatantly, converge. My theory on it is that the faun and fairies are all in Ofelia's mind. ((SPOILER, highlight to see: This is most obvious when the Captain (his name is Vidal, apparently) enters the middle of the labyrinth. He does not see the faun and the faun does not see the Captain. There is no interaction at all. )). It is a bit iffy, really. There are some things that it does not make entire sense, but we do see it (the fairy parts) through Ofelia. The movie is not a fairy tale, so much as a war story fused into one. Instead of seeing it through the eyes of an adult, where we would get an accurate tale of the war, we get it through the eyes of a little girl who is obsessed with fairies and fantasy. Ofelia, being an imaginitive little girl, does not absorb herself into the happenings of the war and so, makes up her own little world. The only way we can see anything about the war is if we look through the Captain's eyes or Mercedes (I realise I haven't said much on her... haha) or Ofelia's mother or even the Doctor ((SPOILER, highlight to see: Minor note, I love it when the Doctor dies. It is astonishingly done... The view of the camera and his actions - wonderful)). If the film was done entirely through the eyes of Ofelia, we would not have any of the war, most likely. It would have been all faun and fairies.

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On another note, Ray Bradbury is going to Comic-Con. This makes me really happy. Now it is both Bradbury AND Gaiman, haha!