Review: The Shape Of Water (UK Cert 15)

Garnering an impressive 13 Oscar nominations and numerous other awards, Guillermo del Toro's The Shape Of Water is a dark fairytale suffused with romance and menace. 

Elisa Esposito is a mute young woman who works as a cleaner at a secret research facility. One day, a new 'asset'- an amphibious humanoid- is brought to the facility and is subjected to brutal testing. Elisa starts to form a bond with the creature which sets the stage for a daring rescue attempt as Elisa and her friends must free the creature before it is vivisected. 

All of Guillermo del Toro's films are a bit weird (which might be a bit of an understatement). He utilises the tropes of horror and fantasy to create a mad nexus of styles within the stories he tells. The Shape Of Water is no exception to that. At its core, the film asks you to accept a romantic relationship between a woman and an amphibian. If you can't get behind this, then frankly this isn't the film for you. 

I was surprised at how explicit the film was; I wasn't expecting the level of nudity and sex that the film contains, and there's several instances of quite graphic violence which are shocking, and a few instances of body horror which are decidedly queasy. There's also a truly bizarre song-and-dance routine towards the end of the film which evokes the Fred Astaire-Cyd Charisse dance numbers- albeit with the amphibian man in Astaire's place. That said, by the time that happens in the film, there's been so much other weird stuff that's gone on that you really just go with it. 

Sally Hawkins is a revelation as Elisa, even more so because she doesn't speak- she uses ASL (American Sign Language) and she's either subtitled or another character interprets for her. You see every emotion pass across her face- anguish, rage, happiness- and her plea to her friend Giles to help her rescue the creature is one of the most powerful scenes of the film. It's a very different role from some of Hawkins' other film appearances, so if you've only ever seen her as Mrs Brown in the Paddington films, you might be in for a bit of a surprise.

Richard Jenkins (The Cabin In The Woods, The Visitor) plays Giles, Elisa's neighbour and friend, and provides a lovely counterpoint to Hawkins. An artist who works from home and shares Elisa's love for classic movies, he's also a gay man at a time when acceptance was in short supply- and a scene where he is brutally shot down by someone he fancies is heartbreaking. It's a warm and very endearing performance. Octavia Spencer shines in her supporting role as Zelda, Elisa's co-worker. She provides a lot of the humour- she's a no-nonsense woman who's quick with her opinion- which is a nice contrast to Elisa's silence. But she's also fiercely protective of Elisa and- even though she isn't initially involved in the rescue attempt- she stands by her friend.

There's also a nice supporting turn by Michael Stuhlbarg, as scientist Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, who arrives at the facility with the creature and wants to keep it alive- but for his own reasons. It's a fascinating performance and there's a neat twist to the character which is revealed fairly early on but which helps to inform later actions. Creature maestro Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrith, Hellboy) plays the amphibian man and he's brilliant, moving sinuously and emoting beneath the prosthetic make-up (which is just superb). 

But what's a fairytale without a monster in the dark to scare us? And, boy, does Michael Shannon deliver on this in spades. He plays the sadistic Franklin, a security agent brought in to oversee the creature. He's a thoroughly unlikeable character- arrogant, racist, sexist, predatory, and absolutely convinced of his own superiority. There's a perverse thrill in seeing him outwitted, especially by the very people he's denigrated. A sinister and intense performance. 

It's a beautiful-looking film, from the crammed cosiness of Giles' flat to the barely-used cinema beneath it and the spaces within the research facility. Alexandre Desplat's sublime score is otherworldly and ethereal and really fits the narrative well, and there's a good use of period music (such as 'I Know Why (And So Do You)' and 'You'll Never Know') to evoke the mood. 

I enjoyed The Shape Of Water and I liked it. It was just a bit much to take in on the first viewing. I think I need to see it again; now the surprises of the film are known to me, I think I'll enjoy it more. I can see why the awards bodies have embraced it, too.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

The Shape Of Water is on general release from February 14 2018

Review: Paddington 2 (UK Cert PG)

Three years on from the first film, the marmalade-loving little bear is back on the big screen with another madcap adventure. 

Paddington is settled with the Brown family and has become a popular member of the Windsor Gardens community (well, with everyone except the curmudgeonly Mr Curry). When on the look-out for the perfect birthday present for Aunt Lucy, he finds an old pop-up book in Mr Gruber's antique shop and resolves to get a job to pay for it. However, the book is stolen- and Paddington ends up in prison. It's down to the Browns to prove Paddington's innocence and find the real culprit. 

One word kept going through my head as I watched Paddington 2. Charming. The whole endeavour is absolutely charming. I'd say it's nigh-on impossible to leave the cinema without a warm, fuzzy glow and a smile on your face after seeing this film. 

It's impossible not to warm to Paddington's naively optimistic view of the world. He's a true believer in the good in people and, even when things prove otherwise, he still holds on to that thought. Ben Whishaw's wonderfully light and earnest voice performance really helps to sell that. Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins are great as Mr and Mrs Brown, while Julie Walters gives a warm performance as Scottish housekeeper Mrs Bird. 

Hugh Grant seems to be having a ball as the flamboyantly villainous Phoenix Buchanan, a West End actor reduced to doing dog food commercials. He thinks the pop-up book is a treasure map to reveal a lost fortune, which will restore him to his rightful place on the stage in a one-man show. He makes for a wonderfully unctuous villain. Brendan Gleeson is similarly great as hardman Knuckles McGinty who Paddington meets in prison. 

There's an veritable cornucopia of British acting talent on display here, many in very minor roles: Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins, Meera Syal, Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, Jessica Hynes and Richard Ayoade all make appearances, with a particularly good turn by Tom Conti as a grumpy High Court judge. 

The whole design of the film is also great, with some wonderful visual flourishes; in one sequence, Paddington imagines himself and Aunt Lucy in the pages of the pop-up book, visiting the sights. 

This is an utterly delightful film, with something for the whole family. Very enjoyable indeed.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Paddington (UK Cert: PG)

For those of us who grew up in the eighties or nineties, we’ve had to endure seeing some of our favourite children’s TV shows pulped and dismembered until the fun, the excitement, everything we loved about them, is absent up on the big screen (Thunderbirds, Garfield, The Smurfs, etc.). The difference with Paul King’s film adaptation of Michael Bond’s much loved Paddington Bear books and TV series is that King has immeasurable amounts of respect for his source material.

In Darkest Peru, an English explorer discovered ultra-smart bears that could talk and were borderline obsessive over marmalade. Decades later, an earthquake wipes out young Paddington bear’s family home. Believing that all English people are as polite and kind as the explorer from years back, Paddington sets off for London in the hope that a family there will look after him.

King also wrote the screenplay for Paddington, which is a near-as-damn-it-perfect combination of eccentric British humour, but also moments of pull-at-the-heartstrings sadness that both children and adults will appreciate. There is so much to laugh at in Paddington, some of the jokes being both inventive and off-the-scale bonkers (the prim-and-proper black-and-white show reel that opens the film, showing the explorer’s encounters with the bears; Paddington being followed round by a calypso band), but there are occasional dramatic and sad scenes that are far from heavy handed or feel like they belong in a different film (the earthquake is bound to scare the very young, hence the PG certificate, while scenes where Paddington is alone at the train station he is named after, commuters shoving past and ignoring him – far from the friendly, open armed capital he was expecting – is lump to the throat stuff). King has done a fine job here of keeping the gentle humour and the boundless optimism of Bond’s books (written only years after the Second World War), but modernises Paddington just enough to make London recognisable to today’s audience. Much of the laughs come from Paddington’s old fashioned politeness and etiquette whenever he meets a stranger or comes across a new situation in London’s busy streets, and while it’s the same pun much of the time, King throws in enough ideas to make sure you never really notice.

The whole cast clearly had fun making Paddington. Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville nearly steals the show as Mr. Brown, far from happy when his wife decides to let a bear stay at their home. Mr Brown used to be adventurous and spur of the moment, until he became a father and took on a job as a risk analyst to make ends meet. Bonneville gets more than his fair share of the laughs, his po-faced asides and remarks guaranteed to have audiences sniggering. Sally Hawkins is ideally cast as the quirky Mrs. Brown, always beaming with optimism, epitomising many of the themes from Bond’s books. Nicole Kidman enjoys herself, hamming it up as the film’s taxidermist villain, having a bitchy answer for everything and following up her dialogue with a textbook wicked smile and an evil twinkle in her eye. Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi briefly turns up as a nosey neighbour, relishing the one-liners he’s given. Julie Walters turns peculiar all the way up to eleven with her performance as the Brown’s housekeeper, Mrs. Bird, giving a brilliantly over-the-top Scottish accent along with her barmy stare.

Star of the show is the bear himself. While not quite the photo realism of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Paddington looks as friendly and adorable as fans of Bond’s books would expect, and will have plenty of children going “Aaawww!” There are some impressive touches with the animation, such as when Paddington is stood out in the rain all alone, his fur soaked, rain dripping off him, or when the Brown children use hair dryers on him, Paddington looking like a giant hair ball. Ben Whishaw (cast as Q in the upcoming Bond film, SPECTRE) does superb work here, lending his vocals to the marmalade-loving bear, Paddington’s voice sounding gentle, whispery, and heart-on-his-sleeve innocent.

It’s not just the bear who looks impressive; Erik Wilson makes London a palette of colour for the eyes. Just as the illustrations in Bond’s books made London this vibrant, magical-looking place, Wilson does the same here, managing to make the capital’s streets just as awe-inspiring as Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. This is an idealist’s view of London, where if you took away the cynicism, people would realise that this is a capital with a dynamic mix of art, music, and different people from all over the world.

Paddington is a rare thing, a film adaptation of a childhood franchise that gets things absolutely right. This isn’t a cold, cynical money maker, Paddington has warmth, humour and, while it can easily be placed in the family film genre, every family member who watches it, however young or old, is guaranteed to have a great big smile on their face.

4 out of 5

Matt

Review: Blue Jasmine (UK Cert 12A)

It's incredible to think that Woody Allen's career spans six decades and over forty movies. All cinema is a matter of taste and I can almost clearly divide Allen's films into those that I didn't enjoy so much (Melinda and Melinda, Anything Else, Mighty Aphrodite) and those that I did (Bullets Over Broadway, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Annie Hall).  Blue Jasmine falls very much in the second category.

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) arrives in San Francisco to stay with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) and make a new life for herself. Through flashbacks, we get to see Jasmine's former high life in New York and her marriage to Hal (Alec Baldwin), a smooth-talking financial executive with more than a few secrets of his own. There are secrets aplenty and some startling revelations to come as Jasmine tries to make a new life for herself whilst trying to get away from the past.

I don't think I've ever seen Cate Blanchett give a bad performance (even in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull) but her performance here is just sublime, up there for me with her incredible portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Jasmine is a polished, almost glacial figure but the hysteria and nerves are never far from the surface, erupting quite spectacularly on some occasions. Blanchett is a tremendous actress and softens some of Jasmine's rougher, more neurotic edges, effortlessly throwing out zingers like 'There's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming' without seeming kooky or absolutely unhinged. It's a fine balancing-act but Blanchett pulls it off with aplomb.

Other performances are also stellar, particularly Sally Hawkins as Ginger, a tough, no-nonsense woman whose life is also thrown into chaos when Jasmine descends. The British actress more than holds her own in scenes with Blanchett and Ginger's individual storyline is as emotionally affecting as Jasmine. Baldwin is great as the slightly oily but also very charming Hal, whilst Andrew Dice Clay, Louis C.K. and Bobby Cannavale all turn in great performances as the various men in Ginger's life. Particular praise must also be given to Alden Ehrenreich, who has a few important scenes as Jasmine and Hal's son Danny.  

Allen's script is strong, amongst the strongest he's done in my opinion. His direction is also clear, eliciting great performances from everyone. In places, Blue Jasmine is laugh-out-loud funny; in others, unexpectedly moving. Blanchett's superlative performance is worth the price of your ticket alone, but this film has a lot to recommend it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez