PAN'S LABYRINTH

Rating:★★★★
Category:Movies
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
PAN'S LABYRINTH (EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO), by writer and director Guillermo del Toro (HELLBOY), is filled with images as imaginative and fascinating as they are sometimes frightening and gross. They are quite magical as well, and some aspects of the story make it seem somewhat like a bleak and hopeless WIZARD OF OZ.

This R-rated fairy tale for adults features magical roots, monster-sized belching toads, and a creepy creature who looks like a ghostly old man with sagging skin and with removal eyeballs in the palms of his hands. Actually the first creature we encounter is both the simplest and the best. A cross between a large praying mantis and a locust, it flies into the long, black car carrying Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young teen -- think Dorothy from the WIZARD OF OZ -- and her sick and pregnant mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil). Later this bug will transform into a six-inch high man with insect wings.

Set in Spain in 1944, part of the story concerns Ofelia's sadistic father Capitán Vidal (Sergi López), who executes people for no reason other than he can, and part of the tale is about the fairy tale world which comes to life when she touches the pages of a completely blank book. Often, of course, the real and imaginary worlds blend, leaving the viewers purposely confused as to what is real and what isn't. We come to believe that it is all one big fairy tale set against an historic backdrop.

The sets, the sights and the sounds are original and imaginative, but please forgive me for saying that, although the emperor does have clothes, they don't stay on for long. Sure, if I had seen only thirty minutes of PAN'S LABYRINTH, I might be singing its praises like almost all of the other critics. But the dirty little secret from my viewpoint is that a little of PAN'S LABYRINTH goes a long, long way. I loved THE LORD OF THE RINGS for the visuals, but the characters and story were just as involving and actually more so. In contrast, PAN'S LABYRINTH doesn't offer anything other than images. By the one hour mark I had had way more of them than I wanted. The rest of the time for me was just a tedious slog to the ending credits.

"You're getting older," Ofelia's mother tells her sternly at one point. "You'll soon learn that life isn't like a fairy tale. The world is a cruel place." Cruel and long too, when waiting for a movie which has overstayed its welcome to finally come to an end.

PAN'S LABYRINTH runs a long 1:51. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. It is rated R for "graphic violence and some language" and would be acceptable for most teenagers

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