Pan's Labyrinth

My shot at being a movie critic.

When Stacy and I went to see Pan's Labyrinth last weekend, we thought that it was an interesting story that was a weird movie. But we thought it was pretty good for a Spanish-language film. But to my surprise, I woke up this morning to find out that Pan's Labyrinth had won three Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards last night. I think it was nominated for six Oscars and won three. Not too shabby.

Nominations (wins in bold)
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Original Screenplay
Achievement in Cinematography
Achievement in Makeup
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Achievement in Art Direction

If I had to compare Pan's Labyrinth to a more well-known story, I guess I'd put it alongside The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Bridge to Terebithia. The ending of Pan's Labyrinth is extremely ambiguous about whether the events are real or exist only in Ofelia's imagination. I believe that the movie is rated R for violence and some language, I guess. Although the language is Spanish and if you don't speak it, you won't pick it up as they translate it down.

The movie took history, politics and fantasy and wound them into one movie. There were some very graphic parts (a mouth knifed open and a couple of headshots) but if you can stomach those, it's a pretty good movie that I'd recommend.