Laberinto del Fauno, El
(Pan's Labyrinth - more acccurately Labyrinth of Fauno)
UK Rated: 15
Runtime: 119min 31secs
Tagline:Innocence Has A Power Evil Cannot Imagine.
Written & Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Plot Outline
"Pan's Labyrinth" is the story of a young girl that travels with her mother and adoptive father to a rural area up North in Spain, 1944. After Franco´s victory. The girl lives in an imaginary world of her own creation and faces the real world with much chagrin. Post-war Fascist repression is at its height in rural Spain and the girl must come to terms with that through a fable of her own.

Overall Impressions:
Having seen the trailer I expected this to be a complex fairy tale of much special effects and aimed a little more at the children within adults. Partly I was right - where I was wrong is that the fairy tale was not as in-depth as I had imagined & this is a plus. The visuals are stunning and what I feared of overuse of effects, thankfully is not the case, in fact quite the contrary. There are places were the effects are subtle and it works a charm.

Beneath the fairy tale we can also see the pain that causes the imagination of the child to remain within their own fairy tales, the pains and sadness of the civil war is clear and the way the two layers interweave is a stroke of penning genius. There are moments that remind me of classics like Oliver Twist and Alice in Wonderland, but with both the mentioned being masterpieces - clearly this is no bad thing.

If in mood for a magical & deep film, thoroughly recommended (7 out of 10)