Pan's Labyrinth, PL (heh.. same initials as my name... uh, not relevant, but dun care), has received many glowing reviews in movie websites and magazines. So is it really that good? or is it just some foreign arty arty film?
Well, first off, this movie is in Spanish. So you have to READ the subtitles to make sense of what's happening. This probably already puts off a good number of you. heh.
The movie has two main story lines, (1) the fairy tale of a girl who is supposed to be a lost princess finding her way back to her kingdom and (2) the story of a girl (the same one) caught in the middle of a civil battle together with a mother and step-father. During the whole movie, the director switches from one story line to the other. As usual, I'm not gonna try to be arty farty about my review. The simple question is, nice to watch or not?
PL is not particularly exciting. But, it has a strange way of keeping my eyes glued to the screen. The fantasy characters the director created are quite interesting. Special mention goes to the monster with his eyes in the palm of his hands. It's quite a scary scene but not nearly violent or horrifying enough. Interestingly, the scariest parts of the movies are actually those which were supposedly rooted in reality, what was happening in the 'real world'. Other than the brutal killing scenes, there is the torture scene which really makes you squirm in your seat. You don't see the process. Just the prelude and the end. The worst scene involves a knife in a person's mouth. I think you get the picture.
So, is PL good? I think if you don't like foreign films, this one will not do much for you. But if you are open to them, PL does have an interesting story to tell. The ending feels a little rushed. But on the whole, you do leave the cinema feeling like you've just gone for a nice ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment