Sunday night comforts

My favourite Sunday-night pastime involves relaxing, recovering from the weekend and watching a predictable, comfortable movie on TV. Movies like "Air Force One," or "Back to the Future," which are comfortable because you've seen them several (and in some cases, dozens) of times. What a departure, then, when I saw the daring, cinematic masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth."

The members of my party probably won't agree, but if the movie weren't so gruesome (and it truly was the goriest movie I've seen to date), I feel like the movie would have been better received in my party.

Still, the gore doesn't detract from the brilliance of this movie, which lies primarily in the imagery and the story. I don't want to give anything away about the plot, except to say that the movie takes us along as we see the world through the eyes of a young girl who is living the horrors of Spain, post civil war. This little girl creates elaborate fantasies, which have a sinister quality to them. Whether her fantasies are meant to escape the real world, or whether they are merely mental manifestations of the violence she is surrended by, is hard to say, but the beauty of this film is hard to deny. And the imagery is hard to let go. I think most people will find it hard to forget the image of the character whose eyes are in his hands. He's like a neo-nazi gollum character.

In any case, I anticipate that this will be the best movie I see all year.