The Shape of Water (2017)
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The Shape of Water Movie Review
The Shape of Water is a 2017 historical fantasy romance film directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins. It is a very strong, but somewhat flawed movie.
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“When he looks at me, the way he looks at me…
He does not know, what I lack… Or – how – I am incomplete.
He sees me, for what I – am, as I am.
He’s happy – to see me. Every time. Every day.
Now, I can either save him… or let him die“
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The plot follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature. The time period is 1962 and thus the film is a historical Cold War flick while having a fantastical creature and a romance at the center of it. It’s a great mix and I like all three of these elements, but I wanted a bigger emphasis on fantasy and especially romance as the spy historical angle overtook the film a bit too much.
In my opinion, the first half of this film is fantastic and almost flawless. I loved the build-up and I absolutely loved how slow but involving it was while consistently being intriguing and very endearing in its characters and visuals. But the second half became pretty predictable, especially the third act, and I wanted more romance and less politics there.
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Let’s talk about the characters. Elisa Esposito is a fascinating character. She’s a great, very likable protagonist for whom you root for as she is such a great person. The fact that she is mute made her even more interesting. Giles is also pretty terrific as her gay roommate and a different kind of gay character. I loved the exploration of old age and loneliness with his character and he surely had some pretty sad moments. The two are wonderful together and their loneliness is very much felt throughout the film.
Zelda is wonderful. She is her wonderful black work friend and she brought a necessary amount of humor to an otherwise dark movie. I loved most of her lines and she brought a smile to my face almost every time. Dimitri is also terrific and although I hated what happened to him, I just loved how the movie portrayed a Russian in a positive light for a change. The portrayal of both Russians and Americans as villains is superb here and he stands between these two evil groups and those spy elements were quite interesting.
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So the film is very much a modern PC film but done right and never forced. You have a black woman, a mute woman, a Russian and a gay roommate and they all have to fight a straight white man who is evil. But I liked that a lot as it was subtly executed and the characters are all very well established. The film showcased really well how a seemingly perfect man in a perfect family is actually a horrible human being who is an opportunist, abusive and sexist as well as racist. Thus the film reconstructed the definition of 60s perfect man and family stupendously well.
But I didn’t love the villain. He is archetypal and definitely very capable and competent as most del Toro’s villains are, but he still felt overly aggressive and overly villainous. The emphasis on him is excessive and the film is mostly a black-and-white case in its characters and I wanted more grey zones. But still, this is a fairy tale and should be watched accordingly so I guess that its more straightforward approach should not be criticized.
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The acting here is naturally fantastic given the amount of talent that it has. Michael Shannon gives his regular villainous role that reminded me of Zod from ‘Man of Steel’ but he is still very strong in the role and he even excelled playing him. Sally Hawkins did not blow me away as she wasn’t the standout here in my opinion and she needed a bigger screen time. She is excellent for sure, but not the best actress of the year by any stretch of the imagination.
Michael Stuhlbarg was better in ‘Call Me by Your Name’, but here he has a much bigger role and he is very good and believable as a Russian spy. Octavia Spencer is reliably terrific and she was very funny, subtle and extremely likable in her great role. Richard Jenkins probably is the standout here as a very interesting character and his performance is consistently involving and again believable. He is one of the most interesting actors/characters here which I did not expect at all.
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The Shape of Water is technically arresting. Guillermo del Toro is one of those directors who have a very signature style and I love that. His movies are easily recognizable and the same goes for this one. His direction truly is superb here and he executed this flawed story so well. The cinematography is fantastic and some of the imagery was simply wonderful to behold along with the lighting which was consistently fantastical and dreamlike. I particularly adored that fantasy musical sequence as well as the use of the colors blue and yellow. Elisa’s mood is perfectly accompanied through the shifting color.
The editing and pacing are strong as the film is consistently involving to watch. The score is also very strong, pleasing and beautiful, but a bit too understated for my liking. It should have been louder and more present in the film itself. The humor is excellent and I loved when the movie was lighthearted in its first half, but then it became too dark and dangerous for me.
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The gore really threw me off and that is the biggest gripe I have with the film. The cat scene as well as the mouth pulling scene were distractingly violent and awful to witness, but above all else they were just not necessary and they lessened the enjoyment of the film significantly for me. But still it is a very good film, just not as great as some would say and certainly much weaker than his magnum opus ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’. But in terms of the Oscars, it did deserve all thirteen of its nominations as it is particularly effective as a cinematic, artistic achievement.
The Shape of Water is a wonderful modern fairy tale where the technical aspects are the highlights: the use of lighting in recreating the mood of the protagonist is superb, the film looks splendid and visually arresting, the score is understated but very pleasing, the pacing is excellent and del Toro’s direction is reliably great. The acting is terrific across the board with the highlights being Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Sally Hawkins. It is not a fantastic film as it is undone by its excessive, distracting and entirely unnecessary gore and violence plus it needed more romance in it. The second half is more straightforward and predictable, but the first half is almost flawless. It is in the end a flawed, but still excellent film which is consistently involving to watch and populated by highly likable, wonderful characters.
