Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

Guillermo del Toro's latest film Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) has been heralded as the "new Lord of the Rings" and "a new masterpiece in fantasy." But to characterize it as such is not only to misrepresent the story, but also to miss the point of the film completely. What Pan's Labyrinth is is a masterpiece in modern magical realism, a story that neatly draws parallels between the real world and the magical, and then, as the story goes on, dissolves the barriers between the two worlds until they have, in the viewers' minds, become one and the same. The "real world" that exists in Pan's Labyrinth is Spain post-civil war, a time when bands of rebel guerrillas violently oppose the fascist regime of Fransisco Franco, resulting in bloodshed and even more tyrannical practices so as to cripple the rebel forces. The "magical world" that exists is a dazzling world psychologically inhabited by Ofelia, a young girl experiencing the horrors of war and retreating from them into a land of dream-like fantasy that at the same time envelops her, comforts her and shelters her from the horrors being committed by the Captain, her mother's fascist husband running an outpost ruthlessly hunting rebels in a rural area of Spain. The stories fight with one another for screen time over the course of the entire film, just as they fight for time in Ofelia's mind, and, as Ofelia retreats further into her dream-like world of fantasy, they begin to collide, effecting each other in magical, catastrophic ways. (Ofelia, incidentally, is played to absolute, tear-jerking perfection by then 11-year-old actress Ivana Baquero.)

And as is exemplified by such masterful authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario de Andrade, for a story to be effective in a magical realist setting, the two conflicting elements, magic and mundane, need to be reliant upon each other. They need to not only offer parallels between one another, but they need, in a very direct way, to add to their opposing element. One can not merely highlight the other: they need to both become part of one narrative so as to convey a complete storyline. And it is in this aspect of the story that del Toro truly shines. Lift the magical elements from the movie and you are left with nothing more than a one-dimensional, mildly thought-provoking film that half-heartedly struggles with the issues of tyranny and violence. And lift the realism from the magic, you are left with the shallow love child of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings that dosen't struggle with real world issues but neatly sidesteps them to create a mildly pointless story. However, when the stories are combined, the serve to create a film that is at the same time frightening and comforting, horrifying and amusing, and never shys away from offering a full portrait of the trauma of war on a child.

So Pan's Labyrinth is not the next Lord of the Rings, nor is it even a fantasy. It is a cinematic snapshot, a painting in film, of a wartorn nation and a young girl's interpretation of it. And it is beautiful.

(Plus, the special and cosmetic effects are amazing...)