2006 SF action, dir. Guillermo del Toro, Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú:
IMDb /
allmovie.
As the Spanish Civil War grinds to an end, a woman goes to live with
her new husband, taking her daughter with her. But there is dark
wonder behind every tree.
I think for me this is peak interesting del Toro. Yes, there
would be Pacific Rim, but I've seen the original kaiju films;
there's Crimson Peak, but it's just another gothic. This was his
last film in Spanish, and I think like John Woo he got ground down by
Hollywood until his spark of originality had been sucked dry.
Mind you, the English title is the first problem. This is nothing to
do with Pan in the sense of Greek mythology, nor even Machen; there's
a faun ("El laberinto del fauno" is the original title) but it's
certainly not in charge of things.
But what we do get, and which very few filmmakers get right, is an
honest child's viewpoint. Yes, Ofelia is aware that Captain Vidal, her
new stepfather, is a bad guy; but she doesn't understand why
specifically, or why her (pregnant, widowed) mother has ended up
married to him anyway. It's a combination of understanding but lack of
knowledge which too often gets flattened into the generic child, and
its handling here reminded me of how Diana Wynne Jones did it: we the
audience can read between the lines and work out some of the things
the child doesn't yet understand.
Where the film does have problems, I think, is that the "outside"
story, of cruel Captain Vidal and the maquis both in the countryside
and within his household, is at risk of dominating the "inside" story
of Ofelia and her status as a reborn fairy princess. The overt fantasy
sequences are effective, but very short. And del Toro's insistence on
trying to keep things ambiguous, to keep the viewer wondering whether
Ofelia's experiences with fantasy are "real" or just something she's
imagining, while it may please some arthouse viewers means that the
dangerous things of fantasy can never properly reach out and blend
with the outside story's own dangers.
Which means, for example, that I notice that what should be the focal
action of the whole story, Ofelia's offering her own blood in place of
her baby brother's for the final "blood of an innocent" task, does not
in fact show her inventiveness or moral courage at all, even though
she's praised for it: all she does is say "no, I'll give all this up
to keep my brother safe", then gets shot, and completely accidentally
drip her blood down the pit. There are two stories here, on the one
hand the rejection of fantasy and the acceptance of growing up, on the
other hand the acceptance of fantasy and escape from an intolerable
world, and neither of them is allowed to reach a satisfying
conclusion.
That's a pity, because the rest is lovely. Colour grading is used with
subtlety; sound effects are sometimes a bit much but work well to
establish the atmosphere of the house; the monsters are, well,
viscerally impressive at least. The point that does get well made is
that Ofelia has to disobey everyone, even those who have her best
interests at heart.
Not without flaws – I'm not sure any film is – but a very effective
piece even so.
If you want more of my witterings, you should listen to
Ribbon of Memes.
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