Scott, Sheena, and I saw Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (IMDB.com) on Saturday. This highly rated Spanish-language movie has been described as a fantasy movie for adults -- it's rated R for violence (there's no sexual content). The movie takes place in 1944 at the end of WWII in a rural area of Spain. The movie follows a young girl who loves fairy tales. Her mother is pregnant with her sadistic step father's child. They move-in to the step father's military base in which he commands. The girl's nightmarish fantasies involve her discovering that she is really a immortal princess who is to return to the kingdom after accomplishing three challenges as directed by a horned beast. I'm sure there is a more complicated relationship between the girl's fantasy world and her real world predicament, but I really didn't care.
Honestly, I'm not a fan of fantasy films, so I probably just didn't "get" or appreciate this movie. It really didn't make sense to me. Also, the pace of the film was so slow. I suppose we were suppose to appreciate the setting and suspense, but I just never got into it. It is a dark adult movie in that there are gruesome real and fantasy scenes and it has a real world ending that this foreshadowed at the film's opening.
01/25/2007 UPDATE: Okay, I've changed my mind. It's been a few days and I realize that the movie has made an impression on me. So I have to give credit for the movie's excellent production and even the dark, pointless story is rememberable. I also heard Terry Gross' Fresh Air interview with the movie's writer/director, Guillermo Del Toro, yesterday, which made me more sympathetic to his purpose. However, I still don't like the movie. I suppose I really don't like horror or fantasy movies if they don't make sense to me. After all, why waste your life imagining nightmares?
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