An impressive young actress and her visionary director unite to make one of the most magical, relevant movies in recent years, the gorgeous, disturbing fairy tale “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro exercises his gift with fantasy to tell a fabulist saga in which horror is all too human and fantastical beings might provide, if not a cure, at least some way to combat the evil.
The writer-director of “Hellboy” and “The Devil’s Backbone” (in Spanish, 2001) fulfills a fundamental requirement of movies that rely on an overflowing bag of tricks, from advanced puppetry to CGI to prosthetics: He makes those gestures integral to the story. They beguile but do not insist they are the reason for the movie.
So when young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) faces a morbidly huge toad while searching for a key in the innards of a tree, the scene is at once icky, scary and fascinating. And when Ofelia follows a dragonfly fairy to the lair where the magnificent faun Pan lives, the scene carries the rush of the new and the comforting aura of the ancient.
We rush ahead.
Once upon a time, shortly after Francisco Franco’s Nationalists seized Spain, a dark-haired, lonely child named Ofelia traveled north with her pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil). At an outpost, her wicked stepfather Capt. Vidal was doing all in his power to destroy the resistance fighters waging battle from the mountains nearby.
Sergi López does a disquieting job making Vidal believable and monstrous. In what might be a wink toward “Pulp Fiction,” Del Toro gives the pent-up captain an obsession with a timepiece. Vidal’s own father, a great soldier, was said to have broken his pocket watch at the moment of his death so his son would know his heroism.
Gleaning the shriveled root of Vidal’s pathology will not aid you in forgiving his many cruelties. In showing them, Del Toro doesn’t exploit. But you might shudder and cover your eyes. This fable earns its R rating.
From the chilly moment Vidal greets Ofelia, we know he has no use for this girl. His focus and faith are on the unborn child Carmen carries. A son, Vidal’s certain of it.
Fathers and patriarchy shape the rough terrain Ofelia traverses. Her own father, a tailor, died some years back.
Her sweet mom doesn’t provide much of an alternative. In a moment of mother-child confidence, she tries to break the hold fables have on her daughter’s imagination with a lesson in adult compromise. It’s not an appealing trade.
Del Toro loves this little girl and provides her guides.
At the outpost, there’s Mercedes, who works in the captain’s house. The impressive Maribel Verdú played the older woman to the randy teens in “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” by Alfonso Cuarón, an executive producer here. As Carmen grows weaker in her difficult pregnancy, Mercedes offers Ofelia some strength. She might even find backbone to take on the devil.
Above all, there is Pan. Beneath prosthetics and hours of makeup, Doug Jones (“Hellboy”) captures this satyr’s complicated charms. Possessing a trickster’s way with language, he comforts but also taunts and challenges.
Like the “great and powerful” and blustery wizard of a certain Emerald City, Pan is fond of meting out the difficult task seemingly meant to trip up our young heroine. One leads her into the company of a spectacularly unnerving grostesque whose eyes are in the palms of his hands.
Ivana Baquero was 11 at the time Del Toro cast her as Ofelia. On her slim shoulders, the director placed a remarkable responsibility.
But with apologies and gratitude to Simon & Garfunkel, we can say of the wee, wondrous heroine: Ofelia, you break our hearts. But you also restore our confidence in human decency.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” | **** RATING
R for graphic violence and some language|1 hour 52 min.|WARTIME FAIRY TALE|Written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro; photography by Guillermo Navarro; starring Sergi López, Mirabel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Alex Angulo, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil|Opens today at the Mayan.
