Guillermo del Toro not only wrote this story, but also directed it with crisscross patterns of creative fantasy and harsh reality. The animation is nothing like Disney. The sometimes crude and frightening fairies and faun serve his purpose well. His creatures are reminiscent of Return to Oz when they evolve from rocks and insects.

In this dark fairy tale, only for adults, the strength of women is uplifting. The young lady, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), from her first meeting with Capitán Vidal (Sergi López), exhibits an unconquerable spirit. Her mother (Ariadna Gil) and Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) all show a shadowed optimism in this 1944 Franco Spain setting. All three exhibit outstanding performances that captivate the audience’s empathy.

The exact opposite is the Fascist Capitán Vidal. From the first words about his wife’s arrival being fifteen minutes late, you know he is evil. His handsome charm betrays his sinister obsession with cruelty. His military genius gives him many opportunities to exhibit this side. He exploits his wife and those who care for her only to gain a son, not for love but to extend his military heritage. López gives a performance that should be rated with the renowned villains of all time.

This historic fiction enriches the viewer’s knowledge of the emotions during WWII in Spain. The fantasy, like del Toro’s Book of Crossroads, gives the mind an imaginative blank book, ready to be filled with challenges. Watch it at least once.

Not often do I enjoy the movie more than the book, but this is one of the exceptions. My age says I’m an adult, but still enjoy movies aimed at children. This one should have an advisory that younger children should wait until they are older to see this classic.

The Disney animation, mixed with charismatic child actors, brings the viewer an escape from the predictable. You feel their frustrations as bullies rule their lives, and their joy as they build their fantasy in the woods. Family life is a strong force, but friendship is their salvation, only to come back to family bonding when tragedy strikes. Villains and heroes come in unexpected forms, and switch roles. An all too perfect world come crashing down.

Anna Sophia Robb is an actress to watch. She is refreshing as the misfit newcomer who refuses to conform. Her quirky charm grows on her two friends, as well as the viewers. No doubt she was captivating as the little girl who loved Winn-Dixie, and the perfect smart aleck Violet she was supposed to be in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But as Leslie Burke she radiates in a role made for her. The fantasy all becomes believable. Can’t wait to see her next film!

You expect a lot from the film that wins the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Lives of Others delivers. From the beginning with the interrogation scene the intrigue starts. Switching from audio, to classroom discussion, to the visual scene of the suspect is a powerful insight to the operation of the Stasi. The film grips you in this vise until the end.

One of the top operatives in East Germany in the ’80s is played by Ulrich Mühe. His performance is so moving as he evolves throughout the story. You experience every emotion as he struggles with his conflicting life. He becomes involved with his assignment to bug and listen to a writer and an actress. Bending rules turns to breaking rules as his metamorphous continues. How wonderful he was able to deliver such an award-winning performance before his death in July. How sad that it was to be his last.

It’s now out on DVD and well worth buying or renting. Since Mühe was an actor in East Germany under surveillance, how could the remake in the U.S. even come close?

As many of my faithful readers are aware, I absolutely loath the ‘Pirates’ franchise (see my earlier post ‘Did you Like Pirates of the Caribbean? Then you’re an Idiot’). And I’m not just referring to the widely panned second film ‘Dead Man’s Chest’. I hated the first one equally – including Johnny Depp’s shallow and pedantic acting. The plot was painfully predictable, the script was horrid, and the directing was mediocre. ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ only confirmed what I already knew, while surprising former friends and acquaintances who had previously praised the first film. From filmdom exile, I returned upon the word’s of critics who had the slag stricken from they eyes and finally saw what a debased mockery this franchise is – but unlike the prodigal son, I returned triumphant – the all seeing sage.

One of my favorite reviewers, Stephanie Zacharek, who writes for salon.com, has just published her review of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End’. Though she was fooled by the first release, she clearly saw the failings of the second and predictably rips the third. I’ve included some choice quotes from here review:

“The third and (please God) final entry in this screamingly successful Disney franchise is, like its predecessors, big on spectacle: There’s so much to look at that you never know where to look.”

“This is a glazed, inhuman, cluttered piece of work, a storytelling mishmash that buries the considerable charms of its actors under heavy drifts of silt.”

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t expect more … Disney will earn back every single piece of eight it spent on “At World’s End,” multiplied exponentially. But maybe moviegoers need to be more like swashbuckling privateers, out for our own pleasure and gain instead of that of the big studios. What if Disney made a “Pirates” movie and nobody came? What if we moviegoers just said, en masse, Talk to the hook, because this peg leg is taking its moviegoing booty elsewhere?”

Ah … if only moviegoers where that enlightened. Instead, the movie industry has slowly numbed us over the past half-industry, convincing the average American that a films budget is directly proportional to its quality and entertainment value. Like sheep, we continue to let Hollywood studios herd us towards they’re crap -which we willingly purchase. They’ve conditioned us to open our wallets whenever they dangle a shiny pretty object in front of our faces. Please – don’t be a sheep. Save your money. Take your family to picnic in the park this weekend. Don’t subject them or yourself to this abomination.

Read Stephanie Zacharek’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End’ Review.