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
