Review: Pans Labyrinth

Pans Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia, growing up after the Spanish Civil war. Ofelia and her pregnant mother go and stay with Captain Vidal at his mountain post where he and his soldiers are fighting the rebels. Captain Vidal is Ofelia's step father and the father of Ofelia's mother's soon to arrive baby. Ofelia finds a scapegoat from the horrors of the real world like her mother being very ill because of her pregnancy, her step father being horrid and her father having died when she was very young, the scapegoat she finds is in her fairytales and it is because of these her imagination conjurs up a world in which she must complete three tasks set by a mysterious faun and fairies appear in the form of winged stick insects.
Whilst Ofelia's imagination takes her far on completing her three tasks there is a war going on and Captain Vidal is shown to be a maniacal and very powerful killjoy, Ofelia's mother's condition worsens, the Captain's Mistress Mercedes develops a relationship with Ofelia and helps out the rebels with the help of the Doctor.

Pans Labyrinth is a visual wonder which primarily deals with fear shown with a fantasy element, and it goes deep into the subject of Ofelia's fear of her current condition and displaying this with the fantasy element creates a very touching story which will excite, intrique, thrill and electrify (not literally of course).

There is nothing about Pans Labyrinth that would stop it becoming epic, it sets itself a high limit and doesn't waste time or deviate to get to that limit of greatness and it gets there, by not wasting any time with making scenes that have no meaning or do not help to develop the characters. Pans Labyrinth is like a film that has been rushed because it features all the necessary stuff but a film that has been rushed by Adonises of film.

Pans Labyrinth displays how deep the fantasy genre can be and it does this perfectly with an extremely fitting location and brilliant portrayal of how dark and frightening the imagination of Ofelia is when brought up around such terrifying circumstances.

Beneath an exceptionally well written script and visual brilliance this film displays phenomenal performances from it's cast especially from Sergi López i Ayats who played Captain Vidal, he gives a raw and chilling and most of all ultimately believeable portrayal of his character that would convince any audience that this man is pure evil.....in a box!
Maribel Verdú also pulls off an Oscar worthy performance as Mercedes who creates a brilliant contrast to Captain Vidal and acts as a hope button for Ofelia, her performance captures beautifully the sadness experienced and her hope longing personality in a way that makes her character strangely loveable as the beacon of hope throughout the film.

Pans Labyrinth would be an immense film even if it was just an hour and a half of reading the script, but either way every other single part of the film, from it's acting, direction and visualization turn it into a ridiculously brilliant epic!


Rating: *****/*****
Why see it? Because there is nothing wrong with it, it is perfect!

Sequel?: the idea of a sequel for this film is extremely frightening and I'd be dissapointed by a sequel even if the sequel was amazing, plus there is no possible way for there to be a sequel.

Best bit: I love it all, but i'll probably say Mercedes with her kitchen knife about three quarters of the way into the film
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