Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones
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The Shape of Water is a monstrous fairy tale; sweet and twisted, charming and horrifying, gorgeous and grotesque all at once.
*
We follow Elisa (Hawkins), a mute woman spending her life tending to her lonely neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins), listening to her colleague Zelda (Octavia Spencer) chatter about anything and everything, and quietly cleaning at a top secret research facility somewhere in the US. Her life is changed forever and when new security Strickland (Shannon) brings in an unknown creature reminiscent of Creature From the Black Lagoon (Jones) for study. All of this takes place with a backdrop of Cold War paranoia and social aspects of that time.
Del Toro's imagination runs wild here. Merging fairy tales with adult themes is par for the course for him at this point (Pan's Labyrinth, Crimson Peak), but once again he proves he can do it brilliantly, executing a weird and wonderful story that takes more than its fair share of narrative risks to emphasise emotion and fantasy. This extends to his vision as well; the Creature is one of the most beautiful takes on the design, genuinely breathtaking in both beauty and horror. The use of rich and moody colours reinforces all this as well, building up the dark fantasy nature of the tale.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the film is how much time it spends with its secondary characters. There is a lot of work put in to strengthening and thematically joining the actions of the secondary characters to the primary plot, the way we follow Giles as he tries and fails to find connection in life, or time learning about Zelda's home life, or even reinforcing the motivations of Strickland. It's a significant amount of detail that goes in to making these characters more engaging as people, and it's an odd mix with this otherwise fantastical story, myth with reality happening around it.
The performances in this film were universally strong. Hawkins is delightful, lightly rebellious and passionate and frustrated, aching for connection in a lonely world as she fights for it in the unlikeliest of places. She doesn't say a word (technically), but her emotional communication is fantastic. Shannon is terrifying, never failing to be creepy with his cold dead stare and monstrous determination, or even his casual disregard for everyone he sees as below him. Jenkins is vulnerable, understanding, worn, weakening, and ever so sympathetic. It's hard not to appreciate just how much he does with how he feels in the role. Spencer is the grounding the movie needs, just a dash of audience voice to alleviate the bizarre, and serving beyond her purpose in her brilliant chemistry with an nonspeaking Hawkins. Finally, Jones is a sight to behold as the Creature, not something you feel comfortable looking at but nevertheless mesmerising, moving like, well, water.
The Short Version: The Shape of Water is beautiful and bizarre, a strange fantasy that takes fairy tale tropes and adult themes and mixes them all together through del Toro's unique creative lens. It's a del Toro film through and through, which means it's unusual, but undoubtedly encapsulating.
Rating: 8.5/10
Published January 14th, 2018
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