Movie Review: El Laberinto del Fauno – Spoiler Free
This movie is actually a 2006 released but only this week being played in movie house in Batam. El Laberinto del Fauno is a spanish movie which title is translated as Pan’s Labyrinth in english. This is the second movie that I watched this month directed by Guillermo del Toro after Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I can simply say that El Laberinto del Fauno is a truly beautiful movie.
This movie tells a story about a little girl named Ofelia who lives in a fascist Spain back in 1944. Ofelia is a big fan of fairy tales. Somehow when she and her pregnant mother have to leave big city to a small village she starts to encounter fairy tales of her own life. She meets with fairy and faun, who live in a labyrinth near her house. They soon open Ofelia’s eyes that she was meant for something bigger than her current life.
El Laberinto del Fauno combines a hard realistic life during fascist era in Spain with a beautiful fairy tales. Most are from the eyes of little girl Ofelia. Guillermo del Toro is not so shy to show how hard it is to live against the fascist, in the form of Captain Vidal, a sadistic and brutal captain who is also Ofelia’s stepfather. The fairy tales of Ofelia collides with unwanted reality turns her life into seemingly beautiful and at the same time tragic and depressing story.
One of the strength of this movie is how del Toro tells about the resilience against the fascist. A small group of people tried hard to fight againts the brutal Captain Vidal. That’s where most of Captain Vidal character is built. Especially with his relationship with Mercedes and Doctor who work for him. Captain Vidal is a sample of sadistic soldier and yet an idealistic man.
The fairy tales of Ofelia, like all children imagination, brings the simple story about good and evil. But being described paralel with sadistic and brutal life of Captain Vidal really creates a wonderful blend of contradiction and agony. Del Toro is really smart to decide what ending would be the best for this movie without losing the atmosphere developed in a good pace from the beginning.
In general, this is a must see movie for all moviegoers. Around the full packed action of summer movies, El Laberinto del Fauno offers something different which perhaps can enrich anyone’s perspecitve about life.
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Title : El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Director & writer : Guillermo del Toro
Cast : Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones, Manolo Solo, Cesar Vea.
Genre : drama
My Rating : 4 out of 5
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Pics taken from here
My recommendation : El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone), another Spanish movie by Guillermo del Toro
Pertamax ? Wow…
Gis, mbok sekali2 ngreview pilem yang mo tayang di TransTV
wah nongton transTV aja gue jarang bro
It’s look horor movie…
no my friend, it’s not
It’s look horor movie… right?
no bro, it’s drama/fantasy movie
Hehehe… film del Toro emang keren. Pan’s Labyrinth termasuk jenis film fantasi. Kalo mau nonton genre horror, cobain deh filmnya yg lain The Orphanage (2007). Disitu del Toro jadi produser.
Atau karya temannya del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron yang bikin drama komedi “Y tu Mama Tambien”.
Jadi gak sabar nunggu karya del Toro yg lain (termasuk The Hobbit nih)
wah iya, gue jg sempet heran koq the hobbit ga skalian dibikin ama peter jackson dan malah dikasi ke del toro. Tp kalo ngeliat gaya directing dia mgkin the hobbit jd bakal keren cinematographynya. Hehe dulu gue punya tuh pren Y tu Mama Tambien. Lo notice ga kalo yg maen jadi mercedes di Pan’s Labyrinth (Maribel Verdu) ternyata yg jadi ce matang di Y Tu Mama Tambien
Wah msh ok juga dia hehe
gw nonton trailernya doank ni pelem om…
hehe gue malah belon pernah nongton trailernya bro
kapan ya di putar di HBO?
wah ga tau jg bro, tp hrsnya ga akan lama lah wong ni uda pilem 2 taon yg lalu
another fantasy movie..
well, this is one of my favorites..
yup, if you like fantasy movie then you should go and watch this one
Wow….this movie was played in Jakarta in mid 2007 if I’m not mistaken. I watched it around that time also. Movie’s distribution to Batam sometimes a bit slow huh?
yup, generally it’s much slower. But in the last several months we have several same showtimes with jakarta/america. So I think we’ve improved a little bit
this is wonderfull film…
coz film ini mendebarkan banget…
salam deh bwt Ivana (ofelia)……bravo!!