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Pan's Labyrinth
So, you think your parents were tyrannical? Poor little Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) has to deal with a stepfather (Sergi Lopez) who's an actual, honest-to-goodness fascist, fighting and executing rebels during the Spanish Civil War.
Having been uprooted from her home and moved into a war zone, Ofelia imagines that she's the lost heir of an underground fairy kingdom and must pass three magical challenges placed to her by the mysterious, horn-headed Faun (Doug Jones)—who's considerably scarier than the one from Narnia.
Director Guillermo del Toro doesn't spare his young heroine from any trauma, and in blending fantasy with real war and domestic disarray, manages to do old-school Terry Gilliam better than the man himself. (Gilliam's own little-girl fantasy film, Tideland, was so emotionally detached, its protagonist seems deranged.)
Still, it's not quite the transcendent masterpiece some are hailing it as; the key elements are quite obviously rehashed from the director's previous works The Devil's Backbone and Hellboy.
Had those movies never been made, Pan's Labyrinth would be ground-breaking, but as is, it's still a solid film, though del Toro fans won't find many surprises in store.
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