Vidal is the unquestioned leader of his regiment. He is also obsessed with Carmen's unborn child. Ofelia does not know what to make of Vidal, but she bonds with Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), Vidal's comely and unhappy head housekeeper. Mercedes secretly aids the guerrillas, which include her brother. Also assisting the guerillas is Vidal's world-weary doctor (Álex Angulo).
Coincidentally, Ofelia is targeted by underworld fairies, who believe that she has the re-incarnated spirit of a fairy princess. Ofelia is given a series of strange missions by Faun (Doug Jones), which must be completed within days in order to prove her worth and fairy lineage.
How others will see it. Pan's Labyrinth is a commercial and critical triumph for writer/director Guillermo del Toro, who eschewed his director's salary to help see the project through. The film has a huge imdb.com user rating of 8.4 out of 10, enough to place it high within that website's Top 250. The only demographic withholding full approval is women over 45, who are presumably turned off by Vidal's behavior and the grotesque-looking Faun.
Pan's Labyrinth had success at the Academy Awards uncommon for a foreign language film. It won three Oscars, and was nominated for three others. Its biggest win was for its cinematography, and its biggest nomination was for its screenplay.
How I felt about it. The most obvious quarrel I have with the film is this: Why does Ofelia disobey her orders and eat the two grapes? I know the answer, and I don't like it. She eats the grapes because the director thinks it will add interest or suspense if she does so.
However, I believe that characters should be true to themselves, and not do something simply for the sake of contrived humor, or in the present case, suspense. Ofelia would not eat the grapes. She would leave the feast alone.
It also bothers me that Mercedes does not kill Vidal in the interrogation room, after she has stabbed and sliced him. She would kill him. That is what her character would do. She leaves him alive for one reason only, because his character is useful to the director to cause further grief for Ofelia.
I also believe that Vidal would not shoot to kill the doctor. He would instead shoot him in the leg, to keep him alive for interrogation. There is only one reason for the doctor's quick demise: the director feels that yet another interrogation scene is unnecessary. Which is true, but it doesn't have to be shown.
Also, the band of guerrillas is outnumbered throughout the film. Suddenly, they multiply in numbers and gain the upper hand. This is done to provide resolution: Vidal gets his, and Mercedes is redeemed. We don't buy it. Perhaps Vidal should be left alive, even though a large audience segment wants him to be punished for his rampant cruelty.
Despite these nagging doubts about the film's exposition, we nonetheless admire the movie considerably. We like the lead characters. We respect the director's courage: the mother dies an awful death, and ultimately, the child is killed.
We also like that Ofelia's encounters with the fairy world may, or may not, be entirely of her own imagination; her escape from an unhappy reality. The evidence, though, is on the side of the fairies, since the fate of the mother's health depends upon Faun's instructions.