I'm an American, and a father. So I have two minor gripes about this film: it's not available dubbed into English, and it's too creepy-scary to watch with my family.
Aside from that, this is a fantastic fantasy film, one which pulls you convincingly into its world all the way from beginning to end.
Director Guillermo del Toro has set this film during the Spanish Civil War, following the girl Ofelia as she and her mother Carmen find themselves living in the heart the conflict between the military and the rebels. Ofelia's mother is pregnant with the child of Captain Vidal, but the pregnancy is making her extremely ill. Vidal is more interested in the survival of his son than the welfare of either Carmen or Ofelia, leaving Ofelia alone to find her way in this strange new world of soldiers and fear.
It is shortly after she discovers the labyrinth outside of the military headquarters that she meets a fairy, and right away we get a glimpse of how del Toro paints this fantasy world: the fairy looks like a large stick insect, and doesn't know it's supposed to be a tiny human with wings until Ofelia shows it a picture.
It morphs into something she expects, with enough creaking and cracking to suggest it's not a comfortable change, and leads her through the labyrinth to "a humble faun" who is twice her size and has a voice that sounds as old as the stone of the maze itself. She is told that she is a princess from a magical world who has forgotten her origins, and must pass three magical tests in order to prove her nature before she may return to her true royal parents.
If the word "fantasy" still means beautiful princesses, brave warriors, and stomping trolls heroically defeated in hand-to-hand combat to you, abandon your preconceptions now. This is a the kind of fantasy that used to keep you up around the campfire as a kid, the kind that saw monsters in the trees during a late-autumn thunderstorm and left you wondering just which of your internal organs it's going to eat after you finally fall asleep.
But the real magic of this story is that it doesn't just indulge in the fantasy world. Instead, it toggles between Ofelia's mystical quest and the brutal reality of her mother's illness and the cruelty the Captain is capable of dispensing to enemies and servants alike. It doesn't take long for the viewer to see why Ofelia wants to escape our world so badly, or why she needs the adults around her to believe in a world only she can see.
The end of the film was surprising, plausible and perfect, the kind that immediately makes you want to see it again from the beginning. There aren't nearly enough films as imaginative and distinctive as this one, in any language. If the English subtitles have kept you from watching this film before now, do yourself a favor and get over it.