Ah...Oscar time. About this time every year, I develop a burning desire to see any and all nominated movies. This most often results in me,sitting in the movie theatre during opening credits, asking my neighbor (who is not always someone I know), "Um, what is this movie about?"
This was nearly the case with Pan's Labyrinth. Armed only with these three facts, 1) It is not animated. 2) It's being billed as an "Adult Fairy Tale". 3) There is nauseating violence. (Yeah, ok, I added the word "nauseating" after the fact...but it's still true!) my friend David and I arrived at the theatre to find we would be the only two patrons of Pan and the mystical Labyrinth of pain and suffering and more pain. What I found as I watched the movie is that aforementioned three points were, for the most part, accurate. However, we were both surprised to find how little "fantasy" was actually in the story. Ofelia's tale was mostly based in reality…an unfortunate reality (to say the least) poised on the end of the Spanish Civil War and World War II …having just moved with her mother to live with her new step-father, el Capitan, who is single-handedly one of the most evil villains I have ever seen on screen. Every time he walked in front of the camera, I curled up tighter in my chair.
It’s interesting…I knew about the grotesque violence before I watched the movie, I saw it exhibited VERY early on…and somehow, each time someone was bludgeoned or cut up or otherwise maimed, I was always utterly surprised to see it. I had to do a lot of thinking about this to figure out why…and I think I have it! Even though the fantasy sequences only comprised about a third of the movie, they did an amazing job of making you forget the war, the evil step-father, her mother's trauma…everything. So each time our young heroine returned from one of her missions, I always felt a little better about her situation... "Ha. Ha. Ha," the movie seemed to say to me at these moments...because another character met a gruesome and horrific end…which forced me, once again, into a fetal position in my teeny tiny movie theatre seat.
I spent a lot of time sitting like that over Pan’s 1 hour and 52 minutes.
All-in-all…
This movie gets a solid 4 stars. Why not 5? Because I will never see it again. Why, you may ask? Because my sadism only goes so far. Ha! A superb movie with captivating talent, a petrifying-ly eerie soundtrack, nightmare-inducing violence and at the same time a tender, heart-felt and lovely tale.
References…?
Pan's Labyrinth took me back to movies of my childhood. While this is conclusively the goriest fantasy tale I've ever seen, it bore a strong resemblance to several dark children's fantasies that I loved growing up. Most notably: The Return to Oz, The Neverending Story and two Jim Henson gems: The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth. Each of these movies had an effect on my young mind. Mostly that effect was fear and sheer terror; but they were each captivating tales that resulted in loss, heartache and scary creatures bent on killing our hero! Those stories have stayed with me over the years and I continue to remember them fondly (and with a slight shudder). Pan’s Labyrinth now joins that list.
Let’s not forget that the Grimm Brother’s and other fairy tale writers had equally disturbing stories. After all, Cinderella’s evil step-sisters cut of their heel and toes (respectively) to fit in the glass slipper and win the Prince’s hand in marriage. Fairytaleland is a sick twisted place to live! :-)
Crazy Credits...when/if you watch this, keep an eye out for "Cheech / Chong / May they rest in peace" about 2/3 of the way through the end titles. And if you can tell me what they received billing for, I'll send you a cookie! :-)
