Dir.
Guillermo Del Toro Mexico/Spain/US, 2006, 120 mins
Cast: Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú, Sergi López,
Doug Jones
Review by Carol Allen
Mexican director Del Toro has made various
excursions to Hollywood, bringing his distinctive technique
to Blade 2, Mimic and the very handsome Hellboy. But his
mix of intelligent fantasy and spookiness is most effective,
when working as here in his native Spanish. In this film
he returns to the subject of the Spanish Civil War from a
from a child's point of view.which he dealt with so beautifully
as a very different ghost story in The Devil's Backbone.
The child here is 11 year old Ofélia (Baquero), brought
by her mother to a remote area in Northern Spain to join
her new stepfather Vidal (López), a captain in Franco's
army. He is a cold and cruel man, whose mission is to wipe
out the last of the Republican resistance and whose only
interest in his wife is that she should bear him a son.
All Ofélia brings with her from her former life is
her beloved collection of fairytale books. With her mother
ill and largely inaccessible to her due to a difficult pregnancy,
Ofélia takes refuge from the brutality she sees around
her in a fantasy world of her own creation. The scene of
her fantasy is a nearby labyrinth in the ruined garden of
the military HQ. It is ruled by the mythological Pan, king
of the fauns, a figure not unlike her stepfather in his cruelty,
who tells her she is the reincarnation of a long dead princess.
He promises her the return of her kingdom and her loving
father in return for unquestioning obedience in carrying
out a series of increasingly dangerous tasks he sets her.
The challenge of mixing unsettling
and sometimes terrifying fantasy and real life is tricky
but del Toro manages it with great skill. Ofélia's fantasy world is certainly no
pretty fairyland. It is very disturbing and dark. Even the
fairies look like little devils and the toad she has to challenge
as one of her tasks is vile. It’s very imaginative
and in places the stuff of nightmares, as in one sequence
where she is being chased by a pale, corpse-like creature,
whose eyes are in his hands. Both Pan and the Pale Man are
played by British mime Jones.
The real world of the civil war is
equally disturbing, but in a different way. López's character is powerful,
charismatic and sadistic, a man who takes delight in torturing
his captured prisoners – scenes which are appropriately
unpleasant and full of dread, even though most of the horrors
are implied and left to our imagination. There is an equally
impressive performance from Verdú as Mercedes, Vidal's
housekeeper and Ofélia's friend, who is secretly helping
the rebels.
One of the producers of the film is
Alfonso Cuarón,
and you may recognise Verdú from her very different
role as the “older woman” in Cuarón's
Y Tu Mama Tambien. While Baquero as Ofélia proves
herself one of those child actors with abilities beyond her
years. A very gripping and unusual piece of cinema, which
should have you on the edge of your seat as much as any thriller.
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