Just got out of the 8:20 pm showing of Pan’s Labyrinth at the Lincoln Plaza, and there was no missing the fact that the crowd was enthralled, captivated…until the very sad, somewhat dispiriting ending. This is a very sensual, obviously transporting dream movie, but director-screenwriter Guillermo del Toro‘s story plays as it does because, deep down (or so I believe), his hatred of Sergi Lopez‘s Captain Vidal (i.e., wanting to see him beaten down, sliced open and destroyed for his black monstrousness) is stronger than his feelings of love and tenderness for Ivana Baquero‘s Ofelia, although those feelings are obviously considerable.
