Pan's Labyrinth

The Sunday Age

Sunday July 8, 2007

Iain McKay

4.5/5

Pan's Labyrinth

(MA, 119 mins) Hopscotch

Young Ofelia imagines a parallel world of dark and monstrous possibilities, while her stepfather, a sadistic fascist army captain in Franco's Spain, hunts down partisans. It may conjure up a world of fairytales, but this violent fable is not one for the kiddies, even if director Guillermo del Toro does give us a child's eye view. Del Toro has blended reality and fantasy before, but rarely to such effect. Here he cooks up a distinctly medieval blend of Alice, Bosch and Dali from Ofelia's desperate imagination, and if her adventures are disturbingly surreal they do at least give her the courage to confront the brutality that surrounds her. Powerful and imaginative storytelling and one of the best films you'll see this year.

Extras: A second disc full of material about the film and mythology.