New year's traffic held us up and we all arrived late. Reaching the theater, I caught a glimpse of the movie poster. The name was "Pan's Labyrinth" and it depicted some fairy tale/fantasy kinda place. We postponed the tickets for the next show and went for dinner at the nearby desi restaurant Kashmir. I had eaten at this place earlier, way back in 2003 when I had visited NY as a tourist. Those days, having stayed in remote Indiana, Indian food was always a treat. But this time around, I realized that the restaurant was not as great as I had initially thought and the food was pathetic and a taste spoiler. Guys, my advice - if you are in Times Square area, unless you have to eat desi food, please don't eat at Kashmir!!
The service at the restaurant was slow and so we missed the show again and we had to re-postpone the tickets. Luckily even though the lady at the counter realized we had postponed the tickets before, she still gave us tickets for the next show.
The movie started and then it struck us all...the movie was not in English! It was in Spanish with English subtitles. It is a story about a young girl who believes in fairies while having to deal with harsh reality of her real life. But don't get fooled by the words "young girl" and "fairies". This story is a fancy Gothic fairy tale set against a chilling post war era with its share of violence, gruesomeness and horror
The story is about a young girl, Ofelia who moves with her pregnant mother to live with her step father. They live in a remote area where her sadist and fascist step father and his army are trying to supress the local insurgents. Ofelia is very fond of books on ancient fairy tales and one day finds herself entering an old labyrinth (maze) near her home. These she meets a faun who tells her that she is the long lost daughter of the King of the Underworld and that she needs to carry out three tasks successfully in order to re-enter the magical world. The remainder of the movie shows how she goes about carrying out the tasks and as a result meets terrifying creatures.
Story apart, the movie itself is a pure work of art. The brilliant imagination displayed by the director is en-captivating. The childlike innocence of the young girl's imagination is intricately woven with the horror of the real world as well as that of the fantasy world. The acting is superb and the sets and make-up is amazing. No wonder this movie got 6 Oscar nominations including the Best Foreign Film, a strong contender for Water.
If you are of a strong heart and you like out of ordinary movies, I suggest you don't miss Pan's Labyrinth.
6 comments:
hummmm someone being quite active :P
The film sounds very interesting.
I will try to find the film and see. I don't know it will be available or not.
Very interesting. When I read the heading, I started to think, where have I read this name recently and in the end when you mentioned the Oscar nominations, I realized that this movie is one of this year's strong nominations
The movie sounds very interesting. I am not a big Hollywood fan as I think that movies from other parts of the world with small budgets are more interesting because they usually end up telling an unknown tale. I have watched couple of Spanish movies and yea they can be graphic at times.
You have written an awesome review and so this will be in my to-see list even though I am not sure if this movie is running out here. I am sure an Oscar win will bring this movie to smaller cities, even though my heart is with my Canadian movie, Water :D
Jisne Kashmir ke haseen wadiyon main baith ke kashmiri gaajar ka halwa khaya ho, usee New York ke Kashmir main kya mazza aayega...
seems very very intriguing!
Juneli, I dont think its yet avaible out there. But if u do get ur hands on it, lemme know whether you liked it or not.
Ricky, actually the director is a Hollywood director though the movie is Spanish. Do watch it, it'll be worth.
It is Anks, hope u see it some day!
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