By guest columnist dyron_rises
A month after it was released I finally saw The Shape of Water, the latest feature film from visionary director Guillermo Del Toro (Cronos, the Hellboy films, Pan Labyrinth, etc.), a unique blend of fantasy, sci-fi, romance and Cold War intrigue.
A mute, lonely woman named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works as a custodian at a private government laboratory with her friend and interpreter Zelda (Octavia Spencer) in 1962 Baltimore. She discovers that the facility houses a mysterious, amphibian creature, referred to as an “Asset,” in a water tank and communicates with it. A bond is forged between them as well as a quest for survival as she must free it from the lab and the ruthless Colonel (Michael Shannon) who captured him.
This movie is everything I expected it to be from Del Toro: fantastical, strange, and beautiful. In addition to those qualities its maturity and thought-provoking narrative matches that of Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth.
The Shape of Water succeeds in blending these aforementioned genres with a smart and touching execution, and compels us as viewers with its themes of fate, isolation, fear, communication, and a common bond that run through its core characters like Elisa, the “Asset,” her closeted gay artist roommate Giles, and her Black co-worker/confidant, given the time period where America-Russia relations are hostile and racial/sexual equality has yet to come into play.
Sally Hawkins needed no words to deliver a strong performance as Eliza. Her body language and emotive expressions conveyed a lot about her character and the isolation imposed on her, and her interplay with Spencer’s Zelda, Richard Jenkins’ Giles and, most of all, the creature played by Doug Jones, all feel natural and heartfelt with a bit of levity thrown in.
In addition to Sally Hawkins’ terrific, dialogue-free performance is Doug Jones’ “Asset” who too speaks louder than words, based on utilizing body language and knowing how to either keep the viewers at ease or on the edge, as he is playing a scared creature forcibly brought out of his environment and acting on instinct when threatened by government officials.
Which brings us to Michael Shannon’s performance as the man in charge of researching the creature. As always, this guy never ceases to amaze us; he has a knack for easily making those around him uncomfortable because you know what kind of twisted, remorseless shit he is capable of doing just for the sake of his job and country. This is juxtaposed with his more sunny, loving family environment while he’s off duty.
The Shape of Water is an example of a modernized and adult fairy tale as it flirts with those escapist, happily ever after sensibilities, then brings in a visceral impact and propensity to over step boundaries to tell an out-of-the-ordinary story in a real world setting with era-appropriate issues without selling itself short. It maintains Del Toro’s love of classic monster films with an emotional core. It’s a captivating, melodic (courtesy of Alexandre Desplat’s wonderful score) and visually strikingly tale of an unconventional kind and I love it for that. This is a much more engaging interspecies love story than this year’s Beauty and the Beast. Rating: 9.5 out of 10.
Dyron_rises writes about film, TV, nostalgia, music, LA, and geek culture galore. Find more of his thoughts on instagram and twitter.
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