The Shape of Water
3 out of 5
Guillermo del Toro makes weird, but fun movies…but mostly weird. They often feel like you’re watching a dream you might have had, or some story that exists only in the minds of someone who is really high, or brilliant — one of the two. “The Shape of Water” is no different. It’s fun, engaging and captures your attention pretty much from the start — but still — it’s weird. There’s just no getting around it. I mean, it’s about a fish-man and a mute woman falling in love, and when I say love — that’s love and ALL that comes with it.
Based in the 1960’s, in some sort of secret lab / bunker where top secret things are going on, when the U.S. and Soviet Russia were in full swing with the Cold War, we are introduced to Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins). She, along with her friend, Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer), are cleaning ladies in the facility and are right in the middle of everything going on — often cleaning up the messes that are left behind. On one of these occasions, they are brought in to clean up where some sort of creature from South America has been detained and is being tested and prodded. Elisa is struck with curiosity from the beginning and after cleaning up, begins sneaking into the room to learn more about the creature. During this time — she feeds him, begins to communicate with him through sign language and eventually begins to have feelings for him. The creature in the film, by the way, is played by Doug Jones — who is essentially Andy Serkis without the motion capture graphics — the man IS a CGI character all by himself, no need for computers to render him out. If you’ve seen him in other movies — he just is amazing.
While this is all going on — Richard Strickland, played by Michael Shannon — is in charge of the group researching the fish-man. He is tasked with figuring out if there is anything that can be gleaned from the creature that could help the Americans against the Russians — especially in the race to space. Unbeknownst to him and everyone else, one of the scientists is actually a Russian (Michael Stuhlbarg) and he is also giving information back to his superiors on the creature. Both governments, confused by the subject — task both Strickland and Dr. Hoffstetler / Dmitri (Stuhlbarg) with killing it. Elisa learns of the plan to get rid of the creature, and Dr. Hoffstetler also against the killing, assists her in kidnapping and storing the animal until it can be released back into the ocean. During this time, Elisa begins a mad love affair with the creature (which no one seems to find strange — which is strange in and of itself).
As the time for the release quickly approaches, Strickland and the Russian operatives begin to zero in on who has the creature and where it is. From there, it is a race against time as Elisa fights to save the creature and Strickland seeks to kill it.
Again, Guillermo del Toro just makes strange movies. But as with all of the movies I’ve seen of his — visually — this film is beautiful. The story is original and very good — once you get passed the human and fish being in love. And as much as the film is about Elisa and the Fish Man, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins’ character Giles, are scene stealers. They are simply fantastic (as they usually are). “The Shape of Water” is a movie that will likely fly under the box office radar — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching.
