Brutal fairytale

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Gene

Last night I saw “Pan’s Labyrinth” (with a cute guy I’ve been seeing lately; more to come on this in the future, maybe).
I can only describe the film as a brutal fairytale. Set during post-war Franco Spain, it revolves around a young girl who finds herself trapped with her pregnant mother at her violently cruel stepfather’s military encampment. The fairytales she reads voraciously begin to come alive; and she is given a series of tasks to accomplish before she can take her rightful place as the princess of the underworld.
But fairytales are not what we have come to expect in the U.S. — they’re not always sweet, they’re not happy and beautiful. They are dark and mysterious and violent and ugly. And wondrous.
Like this film.
I had to close my eyes many times to avoid seeing what I knew was coming.