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Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
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Pan's
Labyrinth
While Pan’s Labyrinth
has
many fairy tale elements, don’t think for one minute that it
is a movie for
kids. It’s
a magical, frightening and
heartbreaking movie for adults who want to take the journey, and read
the
subtitles.
Set in Spain
in 1944,
Ivana Baquero stars as Ofelia – a young girl who lost her
father during the
war, and is stuck heading out to the countryside with her mother,
Carmen
(Ariadna Gil). Carmen
is pregnant with
the child of a Fascist leader, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), who is
fighting
rebels living in the forest, but doesn’t have much love in
his heart for the
young girl, and, maybe, not even her mother.
As Civil War rages around them, rebels try to attack
the Captain’s
compound, and Carmen’s pregnancy becomes more dangerous by
the day, Ofelia, who
loves to read fairy tales, finds herself living in the middle of one as
an
otherworldly Faun and his Fairy tell the young girl she might be the
long lost
princess of a vast underworld, but must complete three tasks to prove
her
worthiness.
Is Ofelia the princess they
have been looking for? Can
she complete
the tasks?
While the fairy tale element
of Pan’s Labyrinth might be the selling point and the part of
the movie you
have heard the most about, it does become secondary to the harrowing
tale of
Civil War that plays out around it, but maybe that is the point. Writer/director Guillermo
del Toro fills the
movie with themes of growing up, facing the ugliness around you, and
making
decisions about what you stand for and are willing to do for right and
justice. Also, he
brilliantly mixes the
two stories, showing the audience how these very adult themes and
situations
are playing out on a child’s level.
Pan’s Labyrinth also
features two fantastic acting performances.
Baquero is stunning as a dark sorrow starts to come
over her as the
movie moves forward. She
plays a young
girl facing horrible changes in her life, and knows what the impact
will be on
her as each event takes place, as well as desperately clinging to the
hope that
she is meant for a different life.
Also,
Lopez is one of the most coldly evil figures I have seen in a movie
this year
as he portrays the heartless, calculating and unforgivable Captain.
Pan’s Labyrinth is so
good,
you won’t mind reading the subtitles.
4
Waffles (Out
Of 4)
Pan's
Labyrinth is rated R for graphic violence and
some language
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com
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