Pan's Labyrinth

Dark and moving

I was highly ignorant of what this film would be about. I had seen and heard very little about it, which may have been a good thing. I imagined a young girl being sent to live with this evil guy, overcoming adversity through the aid of a loveable faun. Doesn't that sound nice? (And should David Bowie pop and sing at some point, more's the better. Yes I know it's not that Labyrinth.) I could not have been more wrong if I had tried. What I got was mainly a story of war with snippets of fairytales thrown in, and evil, scary fairytales. The parts set in the real world were highly disturbing, with the Captain being a very vicious man happy to beat people to a bloody pulp on a whim, torture and murder without batting an eye. And our heroine is not safe either. So she happily takes on the faun's tasks that will see her return to the underworld and be free of the Captain. Brilliant tasks, especially the one that sends her underground with one of the scariest film monsters I've ever come across. The man with eyes in his hands. Stay away from the grapes love! Shudder.

This is an excellent film, just not what I expected. Ivana Baquero does a great job of carrying such weighty stuff on her shoulders, and the Captain is perfectly played. The effects were also very good, not too over the top, very realistic, especially the gory bits (though I didn't see that much of them I'll be honest). It was also very moving and did bring tears to my eyes at the end. I really recommend this, but go into it with eyes open, it's certainly not one for the kids.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Pan's Labyrinth lacks plot

Not a brilliant film as expected but not particularly bad, the film lacked depth in terms of storyline and never really developed beyound what was a very basic plot. The way the film was shot was very good and could be the only reason why it's been given exceptional reveiws by ctritics in the past. A watchable but fairly average film.(note: it's a spanish film with english subtitles)