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Pan's Labyrinth

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice using bad English. Incorrect word usage was not to be the most horrid of the awesome adventures to come. Lewis Carroll’s admonishment to his creation was: “Alice! A childish story take, and with a gentle hand lay it where childhood’s dreams are twined like pilgrim’s withered wreath of flowers plucked in a far-off land.”

With one huge, bounding March Hare leap, Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2 and Hellboy) has re-invented the children’s fairytale into a powerful, brutally tender political fable. In Pan’s Labyrinth, his unique inventiveness magnifies his child’s Wonderland imagination and then, combined with enormous filmmaking craftsmanship, he’s created an exquisite exposition of power’s evil leaning toward corruption and destruction, as well as the consolation of goodness as redemption and rejuvenation. The film ends with the caveat, “Innocence has a power evil cannot resist.”

Ofelia is the Alice who will wander into Pan’s wondrous labyrinth, located behind an old mill in civil war-torn Spain of 1944. Franco’s fascism has taken power and is “mopping–up” and wreaking retribution. One of Franco’s fiercest executioners is Captain Vidal. He is Ofelia’s mother’s new husband. He will torture, defile or kill without remorse. He rules their household in pretty much the same manner. In this dual story-metaphor scenario, he is also an ogreish fairytale villain of magnificent meanness. His portrayal by Sergi Lopez is as marvelous as that of Irma Baquero as the 10-year old Ofelia. Her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) gravely faces her lot. Ofelia finds escape within the warmth of her labyrinth where she encounters an opulently horned Pan who demands all the prerequisite tasks of fairytales. She is required to get through a pretend land that is almost as grotesque and terrible as the real world where she’s helped by a brave housekeeper, Mercedes (gloriously done by Maribel Verdu), who has been assisting the guerillas. She becomes a heroic mentor to Ofelia, who helps her deal with the harsh real world. In a way, it is rather like the netherworld. For the viewer, you have to be prepared for the seamless integration of horror with grace and beauty. If you give in to it (just try to resist) you may be transported to places you’ve only dreamt of but, with no return ticket.

Ofelia’s adventures start with her consumption of book after book. She reads with a passion to escape the ugliness of her step-father’s cruelty. When her pregnant mother falls ill, she immerses herself in the maze conducted by Pan. The goat-like apparition leads her into a world where she’s a lost princess who must be confronted by ogres and monsters. The princess will have to overcome them or suffer terrible consequences. Princess Moanna must pass the tests to assume her rightful place in the kingdom. The very strange creatures include a huge toad with a tongue as along as a python and more terrifying, a tall Pale Man. He’s as alarming as heck! Saggy white and with eyes that can be kept on a plate until needed. Then they pop into the palms of his hands. Awful? Yes, but not as monstrous as Captain Vidal.

Writer-director Del Toro means for Vidal to represent the militaristic dictatorial regime that conquered by brute force, as done by Germany and Italy in the war, coming to an end. Goodness and decency is inherent in Mercedes, the housekeeper who secretly meets with the rebels in their mountain hideouts. She, like Ofelia, must keep a hopeful, flickering flame of an alternate life glowing. Del Toro sees the fascistic warring world as the dark side. For him, the imaginary world, though hazed by some romanticism in the underworld of art, is a bright lighthouse in a world headed to wreckage on reefs of aggressive power.

Like the first fairytales, Pan’s Labyrinth is not cute, simple and does not guarantee a happy ending. It is harsh, blood-curdling and similar to a horror movie. In previous reviews I’ve likened the works of two other Mexican filmmakers whose work is magical: Alejandro Gonzalez Innarritu (Babel), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and now Del Toro. Dealing with fairytales is closer to the “rabbit in the hat” kind of clever magic. However, his steep political stance puts him in the upper strata of the others’ artistic magic.

Let us hope that Ofelia’s shadowed life now beams brightly in her golden kingdom. Lewis Carroll closed his Alice’s Adventures with, “how she would feel with all her simple sorrows, and find pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child life, and the happy summer days.”

GuyJean de Fraumeni is the producer/writer/director of award-winning European and American feature films. He has been a judge at Major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, the Emmy’s and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.