The Shape of Water is filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s latest “creature
feature.” When I first
saw its trailer, like what many others observed, I thought it looked like an origin story for Abe Sapien, a beloved
character from the Hellboy movies,
which del Toro also directed. Aside
from being a “Creature from the Black Lagoon”-type monster like Abe Sapien and being played by Doug Jones,
the creature in The Shape of Water,
per the trailer, was also shown to be fond of eggs and music – just like Abe
Sapien. However, it turned out The Shape of Water is an entirely unconnected,
independent film from Hellboy.
It’s about a mute woman
named Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) who works as a janitress in a secret
government laboratory in the 1960’s. One
day, the facility receives its most classified asset yet: a humanoid amphibian
(Doug Jones) captured from South America.
Fascinated of the creature, Elisa begins to visit him in secret, sharing
food and music with him and communicating through sign language. Soon, the two form a close bond. When the fate of the creature proves to be dire
at the hands of the government spook (Michael Shannon) in charge of the
research project, she must figure out a way to save him.
The Shape of Water is visually appealing, thanks
to great camera work, practical effects, set design, and production value; the performances
are stellar; and the characters are brilliantly realized. This movie probably has del Torro’s best
directing-and-writing job since Pan’s
Labyrinth.
It’s a strange and stylish film. Well, this is technically true with most of
del Torro’s films, but it’s a perfectly adequate description for it nonetheless.
If I have to describe what this
film is in a single phrase, I’ll go with “a Cold War fairy tale.” Indeed, it’s basically that. It even has a love story, which is typical in
many notable fairy tales. Sure, there’s
an understandably disgusting quality to it, since it’s like
bestiality to a certain degree. But, if you think about it, it’s
similar in a sense to The Little Mermaid. Bingo, that’s exactly it! A gritty, grounded reverse-Little Mermaid (if you’ve seen the film,
“gritty, grounded reverse-Little Mermaid”
should make sense). Besides, cross-species
romances were rampant in traditional fairy tales. Messed up?
Well, before they got all Disneyfied, fairy tales were
inherently dark and messed up. With
these in mind, The Shape of Water is
exactly how a traditional fairy tale set during the Cold War era would have turned out being.
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