On sun­day evening I went to the the­ater with my girl­friend. Sur­pris­ingly enough, there were lots of tick­ets left for Pan’s Labyrinth and so we went for it. To say that I was sur­prised doesn’t come close to the truth. I imag­ined some­thing like Alice in Won­der­land but it was quite dif­fer­ent. Rest assured, there are no spoil­ers ahead so you can read on if that’s what you want.

Guillermo del Toro once again suc­ceeds at cre­at­ing a bril­liant movie that takes the viewer to the very brink of falling into it. Just for the record, I really enjoyed Hell­boy and I’m eagerly wait­ing for the sec­ond install­ment. In Pan’s Labyrinth (offi­cial site) he trans­ports us back in time to Spain’s worst era of fas­cism. The film takes place in rural Spain where there are still vio­lent fights going on after the civil war. That’s where the main pro­tag­o­nist Ofe­lia, a lit­tle girl with a vivid imag­i­na­tion, and her mother come to live. That’s as far as I can go with­out spoil­ing the movie for you.

How­ever, the movie is won­der­fully done. Fan­tasy aspects and the cruel real world blend into a superb mix which is exceed­ingly effi­cient in telling a fairy tale for adults. Beau­ti­ful CGI effects are in stark con­trast to the bru­tal and rather vio­lent real world of fas­cist Spain in 1944. Wher­ever you look one encoun­ters the great love for detail which has been put into the mak­ing of the movie. That makes the film to an incred­i­ble achieve­ment which amazes and enthralls the viewer. It’s one of the great­est movies I’ve seen and it more than deserves the three Oscars this title won.