TIFF Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a litle girl caught up in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, seeks escape from the fear and dreariness of her life -- and is drawn into in a fantasy world as dangerous as the real one she wants to leave behind. Ofelia's father is dead, and her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) has married Captain Vidal (Sergei López), a tyrannical man who rules his remote outpost and his new family with a brutal iron fist. Carmen is pregnant with Vidal's child, and his sole concern is that the baby be delivered safely. Ofelia and Carmen are, to him, mere inconveniences to put up with along the path to him having a son.

Ofelia's most treasured possession is a book of fairy tales, into which she absorbs herself to escape the world around her. When Ofelia and her mother arrive at Captain Vidal's military headquarters, the site of a former mill, they are greeted by armed soldiers swarming everywhere. Ofelia's stepfather is in this place to root out the last vestiges of the recently defeated rebel forces. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of eradicating the rebel army down to the last man. Carmen, who was already sick from her pregnancy, soon grows sicker and is confined to bed, the pregnancy and her own life in danger.

Ofelia's escape from her gloomy surroundings begins with the gentle housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), who befriends the lonely, frightened girl and shows her the mill's abandoned garden, which has a labyrinth as its most interesting feature. Ofelia explores the labyrinth, and within its walls finds a remarkable fantasy world lorded over by a Faun (Doug Jones), who sends her on a series of increasingly difficult tasks in order to prove that she is really a lost, enchanted princess who lost her way from the fairy realm centuries ago. Through the fantasy of the labyrinth and the adventures Ofelia finds there, she will come to terms with her fears and with the monsters of both her real life and her imagination.

Baquero gives a spectacular performance as Ofelia; she is both brave and terrified, and turns those emotions on a dime without missing a beat. Verdú and Gil bookend Baquero as her mother figures, the symbols of safety, warmth, and nurturing, while Lopez chills to the bone as the ever-vigilant and ruthless stepfather.

In Pan's Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro once again explores the darker side of human nature through an elaborately crafted fantasy world. del Toro is a master at this type of film, going beyond the realm of mere fantasy to create a fable wrapped within a carefully crafted drama. One of the things that sets del Toro apart from a lot of other directors who dabble in the fantasy realm is that his writing -- storyline, dialogue, character arcs -- is so incredibly well-drawn, and never takes a back seat to the special effects. Which is not to say that the film isn't visually spectacular as well; it is a darkly hypnotic, visual poem of a film. But del Toro actually groks that truly great storytellers never sacrifice the story for the sake of the illustrations. Both elements must work together and balance each other, and in Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro accomplishes that lofty goal to near perfection.

For more on Pan's Labyrinth, see James Rocchi's interview with Guillermo del Toro at the Toronto International Film Festival.