I will not touch Del Toro's directing abilities, several nominations are speaking on his behalf as I type... the bottom line is I'm a sucker for stories and the more my suspense of disbelief takes me away from analyzing the technical aspects of a film, the better.
I will make a statement that will sound completely ridiculous, but I hope by the time I'm done, some might at least understand why.
Hands down, this is the FANTASY MOVIE TO BEAT. This thing raised the bar so high, that even all mighty Gaiman will have to think twice before he places himself behind the camera. On the lighter side, someone should strap M. Night Shaymalan to a chair, make him watch this movie and then force him to write, ten thousand times, this is the way adult fairy tales are meant to be told (that, after burning all existing copies of Lady in the Water)
I promised no spoilers. I'll stick to it.
Every effective fairytale is at heart, half an adventure, half a horror story, with a moral lesson to bring it all together. Fairy tales area meant to be, not only entertaining, but cautionary in nature. They are life lessons for beings with fertile imagination who have not yet met life at it's best, or at it's worst. When I was 5, Little Red Riding Hood meant, what it meant... a girl in the woods who strays out of the path and meets a wolf. At 10, I fully realized that it meant never talk to strangers. Reading it to my niece, with 20 something years old, I couldn't help but over analize the implicit Freudian strokes about it- the tale had lost it's power; as an adult I knew the meaning and perhaps beyond... life had taken the place of the story. Kendra on the other hand, at 5 years old, relished on the peril and the thrill of a little girl wondering along in the woods, and that is the way it is. The effectiveness of a fairy tale is measured by how fast we can absorb the real in proportion to how easy we forget the fantastical as time goes by.
As adults we are not as given to trust, not as willing to believe, so when such a bold statement as fairy tale for grown ups is made, one usually gets there with the bullshit meter activated. This movie will take you, right on, disarm you and either seduce you or force you to be a child again. The violence is in your face to the point of evoking evil, all humanity is lost in the realm of the real and what is left for the audience to survive an otherwise visceral experience, is to run, along with a little girl into the depths of a Labyrinth inhabited by magical creatures.
Del Toro knows his archetypes and he works them brilliantly. (No spoilers, but minor details here)
I will make a statement that will sound completely ridiculous, but I hope by the time I'm done, some might at least understand why.
Hands down, this is the FANTASY MOVIE TO BEAT. This thing raised the bar so high, that even all mighty Gaiman will have to think twice before he places himself behind the camera. On the lighter side, someone should strap M. Night Shaymalan to a chair, make him watch this movie and then force him to write, ten thousand times, this is the way adult fairy tales are meant to be told (that, after burning all existing copies of Lady in the Water)
I promised no spoilers. I'll stick to it.
Every effective fairytale is at heart, half an adventure, half a horror story, with a moral lesson to bring it all together. Fairy tales area meant to be, not only entertaining, but cautionary in nature. They are life lessons for beings with fertile imagination who have not yet met life at it's best, or at it's worst. When I was 5, Little Red Riding Hood meant, what it meant... a girl in the woods who strays out of the path and meets a wolf. At 10, I fully realized that it meant never talk to strangers. Reading it to my niece, with 20 something years old, I couldn't help but over analize the implicit Freudian strokes about it- the tale had lost it's power; as an adult I knew the meaning and perhaps beyond... life had taken the place of the story. Kendra on the other hand, at 5 years old, relished on the peril and the thrill of a little girl wondering along in the woods, and that is the way it is. The effectiveness of a fairy tale is measured by how fast we can absorb the real in proportion to how easy we forget the fantastical as time goes by.
As adults we are not as given to trust, not as willing to believe, so when such a bold statement as fairy tale for grown ups is made, one usually gets there with the bullshit meter activated. This movie will take you, right on, disarm you and either seduce you or force you to be a child again. The violence is in your face to the point of evoking evil, all humanity is lost in the realm of the real and what is left for the audience to survive an otherwise visceral experience, is to run, along with a little girl into the depths of a Labyrinth inhabited by magical creatures.
Del Toro knows his archetypes and he works them brilliantly. (No spoilers, but minor details here)
- There is an element of juxtaposition between Ofelia-the little girl, and Mercedes- the house keeper. Ofelia is the child who still believes in the fantastical, Mercedes is the adult Ofelia is meant to grow into, one who remembers childhood stories, but no longer has the need to believe in them. They play nicely, bringing the best of each character.
- Monsters live in and out of the fantastic, and they remain the same, both the Paleman and the Captain are well known in their Realms, yet ironically, the fear of them is generated by how little we know about who they are. They are not who they are, but what they do. Monsters in all good fairy tales are almost anonymous, their deeds do the talking. (OT- SEE WHY I'M WORRIED ABOUT HANNIBAL RISING)
- There is of course the guide. Boys and girls, there is a faun in this movie, of course. He is not good old Mr. Tumnus. This is an old, old god of regeneration who finds himself, for the first time in thousands of years, slowly withering away. Rule number one of any human enterprise, don't ever bargain with a dying god... so there is always a sense of peril, a little uncomfortable feeling about it, that will linger until the very end.
- The heroes are there, and they are noble and true. The fools are there, and they serve their purpose.
- The quest is a noble one, which means there will be lots of effort and sacrifice to get to the bottom of it.
Besides the archetypes, there are clever nods through the movie... the guy uses every fairytale device ever created and makes it his own, there is a little bit of Carol, a bit of Gaiman, a dash of Becquer (Spanish and Gothic yummy, yummy) there is even a generous tip of the hat to little Dorothy and her red slippers... if you know where to look.
I could keep talking about this movie, but this review is getting beyond long now. All I have to say is watch it, it's worth it.
Consider this the quote of the day.... I started to write this review about 2 days ago, between study quotes and stuff. Today the Oscar noms came in and I'm happy to see they took risks with some movies I thought would never make the list. So here is Harry Knowles:
1 comment:
I saw this today (had to travel to San Juan, because they only showed it at Fine Arts there). This was awesome and lovely, though I was expecting the backlash from the Faun.
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