Since his debut feature, 1993′s bizarrely imaginative vampire flick Cronos, Guillermo del Toro has crafted a series of arresting and visually unique fantasies. Not all have been equally successful – his studio work, Mimic and Blade II, hasn’t been up to the standard of more personal projects like The Devil’s Backbone and, most recently, Hellboy. But his career has been impressive enough that when he declares a new film to be his masterpiece, it’s worth sitting up and taking notice.
Del Toro is clearly an excellent judge of his own work. Pan’s Labyrinth is by far the greatest achievement of his career – both an evolution and a considerable leap beyond his previous films. It has his visual stamp all over it, but where style has sometimes threatened to overwhelm substance, here the two complement each other perfectly. Everything is beautifully balanced and the elements of horror and fantasy that del Toro has often allowed too much of the foreground are now firmly tied in to plot and character, and all the more effective for it.
The second part of a trilogy of films set around the Spanish civil war, (which began with The Devil’s Backbone and is set to end in 2009 with the recently announced 3993), Pan’s Labyrinth is set in the north of Spain, in 1944. 12 year old Ofelia is brought by her pregnant mother to a small Nazi outpost in the forest, where her new stepfather, Capitán Vidal, is tracking down freedom fighters holed up in the nearby hills. Although she takes an immediate dislike to the sadistic Vidal, Ofelia has other things to worry about: She soon meets the titular faun and is told that in fact she’s the daughter of the king of faerie, and will become a queen if she can pass three tests before the next full moon.
What sounds a little bizarre in summary works beautifully thanks to del Toro’s subtle, deft writing; Ofelia’s communing with otherworldly creatures feels perfectly appropriate amidst the real-life horrors of Nazi Spain. More impressive yet, del Toro manages to juggle two very separate plots and their distinctive worlds, weaving them together and drawing subtle parallels between the real-life horrors and Ofelia’s fairytale reality.
And it’s hard to say which is the more disturbing, Capitán Vidal’s atrocities or the fabulous monstrosities that Ofelia encounters. Pan’s Labyrinth is bloody, violent, and in places downright terrifying in a way that only this kind of dark fantasy can be. It’s another testament to del Toro’s ability that the horror never overwhelms the heart of his movie – Ariadna Gil is astonishingly good as Ofelia, and her innocence is a convincing counter to the unrelenting bleakness of the world(s) that she inhabits; so that while Pan’s Labyrinth is difficult watching it’s never less than totally entrancing.
Not only is this the best film of its fascinating director’s career, it’s one of the finest movies of the year, and it would be difficult to name a better fantasy film in living memory. Guillermo del Toro has succeeded in perfectly melding elements that by any reckoning shouldn’t possibly work together, and in so doing has crafted a brave, unusual, near-flawless film that should be seen by absolutely everyone.