Wednesday, December 13, 2006

PAN'S LABYRINTH

Guillermo del Toro's new Spanish-language film is a bizarre, grotesque and violent children's fantasy, very much in vein of the grim Grimm's tales. It's a complex story about a young girl who meets a fairy and faun who allow her to enter a fantasy world (albeit it a very dark one), intertwining Franco's Spain as the backdrop by having the young girl's mother remarrying a violent and abusive Captain in the army. What's most surprising is that the gore comes from the facist, and not the demons.

I like movies that allow me to see a world I've never seen before. This film certainly does that. However, it's not a film I could recommend to many people. It certainly was not intended for children, and even at the screening I was at, adults walked out during the violent scenes. (Although it's not much worse than Goodfellas, and certainly nothing like Saw.) But if you don't mind the violence, this is a good film.

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