Unexpected Turn

This afternoon, I went to see Pan's Labyrinth, the Spanish-language film that has in the last month been gathering a large amount of critical acclaim. I liked the film overall, but I didn't really get what I was expecting.

From all the advertisements of this movie, and most of the buzz, I was going in expecting the tale of a young girl's strange journey into a fantastical world. Something along the lines of The Neverending Story, perhaps. Instead, this movie is actually a wartime story centered around the resistance movement against a fascist military leader. Oh, and it happens that his wife's daughter (from a previous marriage) also happens to see fairies here and there.

In other words, I have to say that the fantasy elements of this movie that make for the eye-popping commercials feel almost incidental to the film. I say almost because you could argue instead that the real theme of the movie revolves around the time in childhood where one loses innocence. There are a lot of themes at work in this movie. They don't quite blend completely, in my opinion, but neither do they clash. And certainly, the result is a layered, thought- and talk-provoking film.

It's just not the movie I was expecting to see.

Well directed, well acted (this is why subtitles are better than dubbing), I give this film a B+. Perhaps I'd mark it higher if I'd gone in with proper expectations, but it is also a heavy film to take, so I don't anticipate seeing it again soon with those expectations realigned.