Little Children and Pans Labyrinth

I saw these two films last week. They are very different but for some reason i left with the same feeling. Here are the reviews i wrote up.

LITTLE CHILDREN

Life is complicated. Life is full of compromise and contradictions. Life is full of impulses, both good and bad and uncontrollable. So we have 'Little Children' the latest film from director Todd Field (In the Bedroom). The narrative is told like a bedtime story for adults. The Narrarator is unbilled and sounds like the 'movie trailer' guy. Kate Winslet plays Sarah, an unfulfilled housewife who seeks friendship with 'the prom king' Brad (Patrick Wilson.) Close friendship leads to sexual tension and then leads to sex. We also have the quality reemergence of our favorite bad news bear Jackie Earle Haley. He plays Ronnie, a registered sex offender who moves into the neighborhood of the families in the story. The film isn't so much about whats on the surface. Exactly the opposite. *( In Fields' 'In the Bedroom' the characters converse but in every scene they are speaking they actually mean something completely different.) The film, Little Children, is all about Impulses. Sarahs sexual disatisfaction with her husband and her impulsive nearly obsessive crush on Brad, Brads curiosity about Sarah and Ronnie's uncontrollable very public Psycho sexual disorder which leads him into a sex crime conviction. The storytelling is provocative and smart and lends itself to its audience. We almost feel impulsively guilty because while the main characters impulses get them into emotional trouble is that anymore of a crime or any more irresponsible than a sick man like Ronnie whose impoulses lead him to expose himself to a minor? At one point in the film we can't help but empathize with the sex offender who i believe maybe the most innocent childlike character in the film. Its well worth seeing in the theater becasue of its beautiful photography and impressive performances. let me know what you think if you see it or if you read this.



PANS LABYRINTH

Once in a great while i see a film that reminds me why it is that I like movies so much. Pans Labyrinth fits the mold. Its a beautiful film that blends a grotesque 'real world' with a grotesque 'surreal fantasy world.' A young girl and her sickly pregnant mother move into the country where her mother has wed the 'hilteresque' captain of a Spanish Army. The captains motive is greed and doesn't care for the mother or the the girl. The girl wraps herself up in her fantasy realm while the real world around her crumbles. The blending of the fantastic and the real world has been a constant theme in Guillermos work. From Hellboy to Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The fantasy characters he creates are so vivid and imaginative. This film speaks for itself. The girl in the film seeks shelter in her imagaination, she seeks to escape. Just like us, as movie goers, escape our sad world in Hollywood escapism and the like. This is one of the best films of the year. Ecspecially if you like 'children of men' and 'the fountain.'