Pan's Labyrinth is a rich feast for the senses that should not be approached lightly. Be warned — this film is not for the weak of stomach. But unlike the Prestige, the last film I saw in the theater, this one left me melancholy and in awe rather than wanting to scrape out my stomach lining.

I hear that some geeks are upset because the movie is generally considered a fantasy but doesn't really fit that genre neatly. What of it? Director Guillermo del Toro has so seemlessly interwoven the brutal reality of the Spanish civil war with magical escapism that it is impossible to say whether the audience is supposed to take the magic as real or imagination.