This is a good movie and I know why so many people love it but I feel the need to explain why I gave this movie the lowest score of the three of us with a solid 8.2/10 from IMDb and a very superb 95% from Rotten Tomatoes. This is a very movie and I have friends that have this movie at the top of their movie list and fair play to them. Released in 2006 in Spain called “El laberinto del fauno” or the Labyrinth of the Faun it was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It stars Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil & Álex Angulo with the narration from Pablo Adán. With the plot I will try and give you a background and a beginning but I really don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t seen this movie and I don’t want to give too much away. This is also number 10 on my subtitle movie list and those arguing this is a better movie than the next 200 odd will be raging when they see the others on the list. In terms of profit this was produced on a budget of $19m and went on to make $83.3m at the box office so another weight against my low score which I am not convinced I have a stable argument against it this time.
The story begins with a fairy story about a Princess who is the daughter of kind of the underworld. She visits the human world and the sunlight blinds her and erases her memory. She becomes mortal and dies so her father builds a labyrinth which is really a portal around their world in preparation for her return. Set in 1944 five years after the Spanish Civil War and the early Francoist period. We follow a ten-year old girl called Ofelia who travels with her very ill (but pregnant) mother (Carman) to her new stepfather (Vidal). Vidal is the son off the famed leader in Morocco and has been assigned to hunt down republican rebels. His step daughter is visited by a large insect thing which she believes is a fairy which leads her to an ancient stone Labyrinth she is stopped from entering by the housekeeper who is working for Vidal. That night she is visited by the bug that turns into a fairy and leads her into the labyrinth where she meets a faun. The faun believes that she is the Princess Moanna, he gives her a book and tells her she will find in it three tasks to complete in order for her to acquire immortality and return to her kingdom. Whilst she is working on the tasks Vidal proves how vicious he can be when chasing the rebels hiding out in the woods. He then turns against Ofelia and her sick mother, who has Vidal’s son. With a new son traitors in their midst, a brutal Father figure desperate to show his authority to everyone whether adult or child.
I hope this sets up the story for you as Ofelia has some truly scary tasks to complete given to her by the faun. Whilst she is fighting her own fantasy battles and tasks, she is still trying to keep a vile father on side and at arms-reach. Her mother is suffering from the moment we see her throughout the story. Lured by the traitors fighting against her father and trying to support the farmers she lives next too. This is a beautiful and creative movie visually amazing the story is clever and is a fantastic fantasy movie. I cannot recommend seeing this movie enough. I am reading your mind now as you ask – How can you say that and then give it the lowest score of the three critics? Well the thing that gets me about this movie is how violent the violence is when it happens in this movie and is shocking to me. This is a very sad movie and a story about a girl who story is so bleak and desperate and it made me feel so sorry for her and the potential to be the princess of the underworld and to sink down to that world by giving up this bleak and unpleasant world. It made me realise that this world hasn’t been a kind one for so many people and that made me sad. This is a lovely movie but it is also a melancholy movie that is equally as sad as it joyous. If you have not seen this movie you are truly missing out but be prepared for violence and if you have youngsters around then there are some truly eerie spooky creatures in there as well.
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