![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My good friend Andy Miller had snagged a sneak premier ticket to Pan's Labyrinth, the Official Selection of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and already the winner of several awards. The Writer/Director/Producer of the film is Guilleramo del Toro (Blade II, Hellboy, The Devil's Backbone), and is filmed is Spanish with English subtitles (at least the version we saw).
It's an interesting film, cinematically gorgeous, with an intriguing, ambiguous screenplay. The film is set in Spain in 1944, with the Fascist government fighting against the Communist insurgents (who are the 'good guys' in this situation). A pregnant mother and her adolescent daughter Ofelia arrive at a remote mill in the mountains, where the mother's new husband, Captain Vidal, awaits them. He is there with a troop of soldiers to capture or wipe out the insurgents. We see the world through Ofelia's eyes: and her eyes are full of fantasy, which intercuts with the 'real' and very grim situation in which she finds herself.
Interestingly, by the end of the film, we're not certain whether the fantasy truly exists, or whether it lives entirely in Ofelia's head. The viewer is left -- deliberately, I think -- to make up his/her own mind as to the ending. I have no issue with that; in fact, as I said above, I rather like the ambiguity. There are definite echoes of the Latin literary tradition of magical realism in the film, a genre I enjoy.
But that said, there were also two serious flaws that, IMO, keep this film from being a great film. One is the character of Captain Vidal himself. While the script plays with shades of gray rather than black-and-white, while all the other characters are richly and lovingly detailed and complicated, Vidal is sheer cardboard. He in unremittingly evil -- not 'flawed,' but seemingly without any redeeming traits at all. Throughout the film, I kept thinking that if only Vidal were to round out, to become more than the flat, stock villain of the piece, that the film would truly fly. What wonderful ambiguity that would be, for us to glimpse humanity in Vidal, and what incredible tragedy when, after glimpsing it, he surrenders to his flaws in the end. That would have matched the rest of the script.
Also, toward the end of the movie, the characterization of Mercedes -- a woman whose brother is with the insurgents, and who befriends Ofelia -- falls apart. She is given the opportunity to rid herself and everyone else of VIdal... and she inexplicably fails to act. That failure seems to be mostly because "otherwise we lose our ending" than for any other reason. But I can think of at least a handful of situations that could have left Vidal alive, and would have retained Mercedes's character. As it plays out, it's one of those horrible 'comic book hero' stupidities, where the hero has every opportunity to kill/capture/neutralize the villain but instead allows him to escape for no apparent reason other than a still bigger climax is yet to come. That moment in the film was clumsy and amateurish and shook my suspension of disbelief all the way to the core -- enough to make me angry as a viewer. Enough to make me mutter out loud: "Stupid!"
That, along with the shallowness of Vidal's character, makes this only a 'good' film.
It still has a lot to recommend it, though. As I said, the cinematography is gorgeous, the young woman playing Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) does an extraordinary job, and the script (other than the above quibbles) is well-done. There is a fair amount of on-screen violence and brutality in the film, but it's not as graphic as it could have been. Still, if you're at all squeamish, this may not be the film for you, despite the beauty of the fantasy segments.
It's an interesting film, cinematically gorgeous, with an intriguing, ambiguous screenplay. The film is set in Spain in 1944, with the Fascist government fighting against the Communist insurgents (who are the 'good guys' in this situation). A pregnant mother and her adolescent daughter Ofelia arrive at a remote mill in the mountains, where the mother's new husband, Captain Vidal, awaits them. He is there with a troop of soldiers to capture or wipe out the insurgents. We see the world through Ofelia's eyes: and her eyes are full of fantasy, which intercuts with the 'real' and very grim situation in which she finds herself.
Interestingly, by the end of the film, we're not certain whether the fantasy truly exists, or whether it lives entirely in Ofelia's head. The viewer is left -- deliberately, I think -- to make up his/her own mind as to the ending. I have no issue with that; in fact, as I said above, I rather like the ambiguity. There are definite echoes of the Latin literary tradition of magical realism in the film, a genre I enjoy.
But that said, there were also two serious flaws that, IMO, keep this film from being a great film. One is the character of Captain Vidal himself. While the script plays with shades of gray rather than black-and-white, while all the other characters are richly and lovingly detailed and complicated, Vidal is sheer cardboard. He in unremittingly evil -- not 'flawed,' but seemingly without any redeeming traits at all. Throughout the film, I kept thinking that if only Vidal were to round out, to become more than the flat, stock villain of the piece, that the film would truly fly. What wonderful ambiguity that would be, for us to glimpse humanity in Vidal, and what incredible tragedy when, after glimpsing it, he surrenders to his flaws in the end. That would have matched the rest of the script.
Also, toward the end of the movie, the characterization of Mercedes -- a woman whose brother is with the insurgents, and who befriends Ofelia -- falls apart. She is given the opportunity to rid herself and everyone else of VIdal... and she inexplicably fails to act. That failure seems to be mostly because "otherwise we lose our ending" than for any other reason. But I can think of at least a handful of situations that could have left Vidal alive, and would have retained Mercedes's character. As it plays out, it's one of those horrible 'comic book hero' stupidities, where the hero has every opportunity to kill/capture/neutralize the villain but instead allows him to escape for no apparent reason other than a still bigger climax is yet to come. That moment in the film was clumsy and amateurish and shook my suspension of disbelief all the way to the core -- enough to make me angry as a viewer. Enough to make me mutter out loud: "Stupid!"
That, along with the shallowness of Vidal's character, makes this only a 'good' film.
It still has a lot to recommend it, though. As I said, the cinematography is gorgeous, the young woman playing Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) does an extraordinary job, and the script (other than the above quibbles) is well-done. There is a fair amount of on-screen violence and brutality in the film, but it's not as graphic as it could have been. Still, if you're at all squeamish, this may not be the film for you, despite the beauty of the fantasy segments.