Review of Pan's Labyrinth (2006) by Timb — 18 Feb 2007

A film of sufficient quality to meet my standards of good art, but by no means does Pan's Labyrinth stand up to the kind of hype it's been given lately. Analyzed as a whole, the movie mixes fantasy and reality in an innovative fashion, but individual aspects of the film are by no means the best they could have been.

While the acting is good, it's not great, and characters (particularly the Colonel) are flat. Arguably, the film is meant to transcend its characters, but at the very least, Ofelia should have been fleshed out to a greater degree.

The fantasy and reality plotlines of the film are only nominally interesting and would make for a terrible film if they weren't mixed. Maybe this is intentional, but it doesn't make it good.

In regards to the visuals and violence, I was neither impressed nor horrified. Maybe I'm just desensitized, but the blood and gore are far from gratuitious: people are capable of terrible violence, and the movie doesn't suffer for showing it.

On the other hand, the visuals don't have nearly the same impact as the recent 'Children of Men', which masterfully used brutal but less bloody violence to much greater effect. The cinematography, while pretty, was also fairly bland for a supposed masterpiece.

'Pan's Labyrinth' is very much worth seeing for those with reasonably strong stomachs and the ability to suspend their disbelief long enough to take in the overall themes, but a noticeable lack of quality in the film's minor (and not-so-minor) details ruin its supposed greatness.