Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is Guillermo Del Toro's film about a little girl Ofelia who discovers a mysterious world during the Spanish civil war. Del Toro is a visionary director in terms of the visually fascinating worlds he creates and his attention to detail in creating notable visual effects. What he's not very capable of though is even an ounce of subtlety. He prefer his archetypes in general making something a little problematic in using the Spanish Civil War as a staging for his film, as that war was anything but a good vs evil affair. This approach though is more problematic than simplicity of history though through his realization of the character of Captain Vidal the merciless step father of the little girl. The character has little to no nuance with his opening scene of greeting his new family begins with him admonishing Ofelia for merely trying to shake with the wrong hand. Having this pure evil force could not be a terrible problem for a fantastical film however the real problem for Del Toro is his failure in when he attempts nuance. With the Captain we have the story of his father's watch that stopped when his father died. This is given much importance, and time within the film yet only ever feels like a vague attempt to offer some substance to the broad stroke character. Del Toro is frankly best when he just embraces his broad strokes since he struggles with anything else. In turn his best scenes are of the fantasy world with the dark monstrous creatures Ofelia must face in order to claim her place on an otherworldly throne. These scenes are the best within the film as they are always imaginative in their staging and direction by Del Toro. That is not to say they are completely without some minor frustrations, namely Ofelia tasting a forbidden grape only in order to awaken a girl eating monster and the only reason she seems to this is to make the scene happen. The scenes in "reality" have a certain visceral effectiveness as the Captain hunts down the men on the opposing side in the woods however they are rather repetitive in this. The reason for the repetition though being the failure to find any nuance by Del Toro. This side somewhat works still through his broader style, but there is something lacking in the combination of two as Del Toro presents both in the same simple fashion. This in no way leads to a bad film at any point really, however its ambition seems greater than its achievement in the end.
4/5