I finally got round to watching this after it sitting in a box in my house for months. It was well worth the wait.
Mark Kermode called it the best film of 2006, I rarely agree with Mark but on this one he was dead right – it wasn’t just the best film of 2006 but the best fantasy…the best faerie film I have ever seen.
Beautifully shot, deliciously dark and wonderfully ambiguous. Del Toro weaves established features of Faerie with a character driven story set in the post-civil war period in Spain, the result takes the genre in a new and enchanting manner.
The film tells the story of Ofelia, a ten-year-old girl at the end of the Spanish civil war of the 1930s, who is taken to the countryside where her mother is to give birth to her brother in the presence of her deeply disturbed fascist stepfather (Vidal). Arriving at her stepfather’s country house she befriends an insect that turns out to be more than it seems leading her to a strange creature that calls itself a faun.
The faun sets Ofelia three tasks to prove she is the Princess Moanna reborn and regain her throne. Against the backdrop of Ofelia’s quest Del Torro sets Vidal’s demented mission to break the last vestiges of the guerrilla resistance.
A master of casting he extracts fabulous performances from all of the leads from the ten year old Ivana Baquero through to Doug Jones who learnt Spanish for his role as the faun. And lest I forget the absolutely chilling performance from Sergi López as Captain Vidal.
A breathtaking achievement. Go watch it.
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