Pan's Labyrinth

This is the third and most difficult post of the night. Some movies affect me very deeply and I can't help but cry at them. This was one. I was a mess leaving the theater.

I've seen almost all of Guillermo del Toro's movies, including the semi-crappy ones like Mimic and Blade II. He always has a wonderful, lyrical visual style and I also appreciate his obsession with insects and timepieces, which started in Cronos and reappears in full force in this latest movie.

The aftereffects are too strong to give a good recap or review. It's really a perfect story. Two parallel threads of the plot affected me the most: a grown woman trying to protect her brother, an anti-fascist guerrilla fighter hiding in the hills, as a young girl also tries to protect her baby brother. It also set me to wondering whether the fantastic cruelty of fairy tales and fantasy could ever match the real cruelty of real people set against each other.