The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water is something of a glorious homecoming for director / writer Guillermo del Toro. I've talked on this blog before how the chap seems to have no luck in getting his projects off the ground. And most will agree that, while they have their defenders (myself included), his last two films, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak, are not top tier projects from this master filmmaker. Fortunately, del Toro has returned to form with The Shape of Water, an elegant and beautifully crafted fairy tale to match even the mighty Pan's Labyrinth.  

We open with Sally Hawkins' lonely Elisa in a drab apartment above a worn out cinema in downtown 1960s Baltimore. Life is fairly mundane for Elisa - she has an artist friend next door, Giles (Richard Hawkins), and enjoys a jovial relationship with a co-worker at a local science lab, both working as cleaners; this is the extent of her social interactions. And the issue she has - Elisa is a mute and in need of something to happen to in her life. Hawkins is just as magnificent as you'd expect. With no dialogue to convey her emotions, it's all down to facial expressions and body language. While subtitles are sometimes used to translate her signing, del Toro and Hawkins simply trust the audience to understand the point, feeling or emotion Elisa is trying to communicate. It's a highly convincing, subtle, tender and highly unconventional performance that provides a great anchor to the film. 

Sally Hawkins is brilliant as the mute Elisa - yes, even Oscar worthy

However, things begin to change for Elisa when a new specimen is brought to the lab. She soon learns that this thing is a humanoid fish-creature, discovered in South America and brought back to the lab for further tests. She begins to grow an odd affinity towards the creature as the two begin to form a bond that can only be described as love. Now as silly and bizarre as that sounds, The Shape of Water goes to painstaking lengths to sell this relationship. In fact, the lack of dialogue between the two leads just helps to communicate the sincerity of the relationship even more. The Asset himself (listed in the credits as such) is a masterpiece of creature design work. Drawing upon The Creature From The Black Lagoon as a starting point for the design, veteran del Toro actor Doug Jones (Herb Spaien in the underrated Hellboy films and the terrifying eyeball-on-hands monster in Pan's Labyrinth) imbues animal-like tendencies with genuine human emotions in a highly convincing performance. It's really hard not to care about the couple's plight. 

Elisa and Giles, along with co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and disgruntled scientist Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), hatch a scheme to rescue The Asset and release him back into the ocean. The only problem is that they have to circumnavigate Michael Shannon's terrifying Colonel Richard Strickland. Shannon is truly unleashed in this role, playing a warped inversion of the traditional nuclear father desperately trying to control his inner rage. He is sadistic and cruel but not entirely unrelatable (though certainly not redeemable). The Shape of Water is really all about lonely people and how they deal with that loneliness. Elisa is isolated due to her condition. Giles is a struggling artist, fired from his job and homosexual in a time when this was entirely unacceptable. The Asset has been kidnapped from his home, tortured and in a completely alien environment. Zelda works nights but still has to the perform the, inherently sexist duties of a "house wife". And Strickland works an intense job which means he has become estranged from his family life and, really, himself. The film is ultimately about making the choice to break away from this cycle of loneliness. Freeing The Asset is the ultimate accomplishment of this by making a genuine human connection. It's even more beautiful that it's through people who struggle to communicate on a conventional level. Interestingly, just as you think the film is reaching its peak, the story continues to unfold in unexpected and highly engaging avenues, exploring this theme perfectly. Every character is given an arc to follow and it all pays off beautifully. 

The Shape of Water takes a silly premise and turns it into an emotionally thrilling experience 

The Shape of Water is a master class in film art design. Del Toro has always been brilliant at visualising his worlds in extreme ways but he uses this boldness in more subtle ways with The Shape of Water. Every frame is simply oozing with gorgeous colours, perfect set-design and excellent lighting choices. There is a return to the fairy-tale like tenderness of Pan's Labyrinth. This certainly isn't the Baltimore of The Wire or John Waters. There's just this heightened sense of reality, with the colour green permeating nearly every frame, to give the impression of a dream like world. 

The Shape of Water is a film to get swept up in. Every aspect works phenomenally well together and it does genuinely makes you care about a women falling in love with a fish-man. Really. I don't think I've ever seen a film with such a strange premise get this much mainstream applause, accolades and acceptance. This is a testament to just how great The Shape of Water is and the brilliant spell del Toro has crafted. Highly recommended stuff.