The critical community seems to be having kittens over this one- on BBC2’s Culture Show, Mark Kermode attempted to make the case for Del Toro being the new Orson Welles, an argument I utterly fail to see, other than the fact that they’re both pretty wide in the trouser. Pan’s Labyrinth is a strange, frightening, often very beautiful film, but it’s also fairly flawed, mostly in the story department: Del Toro never quite manages to successfully marry the twin strands of his convoluted narrative.
Perhaps it’s the weight of expectation, but I never experienced the sheer astonishment that his earlier Devil’s Backbone provoked. This time the fantasy element is stronger and the horror more explicit, but it also feels more predictable somehow, the fairytale structure forcing a conformity to genre stereotypes in a way the earlier film was never forced to. That said, the design is flawless, the characterisation broad but effective- this is one of the best films of the year, whatever it’s drawbacks.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
27 Nov 2006 5:50 PM | Submit Comment