"The Shape of Water"

I was initially nervous to see this film after a previous encounter of the works of Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth, the scariest movie I ever saw.

I was actually blown away by the fact that there are no hand-eye monsters or anything like that involved. The whole cast and crew were a list of film veterans, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, composer Alexandre Desplat, del Toro as writer, producer, and director.

Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute girl who works the night shift cleaning the local government laboratory in 1962-era Baltimore. Right off the bat, we see her masturbating. Not dirty like, just as if it’s part of her “morning” routine. I’ve read other reviews about how others were repulsed by it. If they have never done it as frequently as she does once in their lives, then they are liars. This shows that, despite her inability to speak, she’s human just like the rest of us. Spencer plays her friend and coworker, Zelda. She does much of the talking for the two, and she’s always making sure Elisa’s on time for work.

Richard Jenkins stars as Elisa’s neighbor, Giles, a struggling commercial artist recovering from a career-ending past. He also struggles to live with his homosexuality in secret, known only by Elisa. One morning after Elisa’s shift, they go out for pie, and Giles shows interest in the pie shop owner, but more on that later.

One night, while Elisa was working, a top-secret tank arrives, guarded by the head of the project, Strickland (Shannon). Shannon shows an arrogant personality of Strickland, obviously very proud of his accomplishment. The creature inside the tank is an amphibious manlike creature standing over six feet tall, which Strickland recovered from the rivers of the Amazon. Strickland’s pride takes a beating as his fingers become severed from the creature. They are reattached but they deteriorate throughout the movie.

During cleaning, Elisa begins interacting with the amphibian man, feeding it eggs, playing music, and even dancing around the tank. But little did she know, she’s being watched by a mysterious scientist (Michael Stuhlbarg), who is secretly working for the Soviet government. He’s amazed by how the creature responds with Elisa. When it came the time that Strickland wanted to kill the “asset” to study it, the scientist conspires with Elisa, who is planning to break it out of the lab anyway, to help her. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa succeeds in rescuing the creature.

During their time together in the lab, we watch a romance bloom between them, which does sound weird, but, nevertheless, heartwarming. In Elisa’s apartment, she takes it up a notch with the creature and engages in intercourse. Their romance is short lived as the creature has spent far too long outside the tank, the floodgates are filling with rain, and Strickland is hunting them down. In an epic showdown, the double agent scientist is killed by members of the Soviet government as an expendable but doesn’t die without blurting the truth of the asset’s whereabouts to Strickland, against his will. Strickland then kills Elisa and the amphibian creature, but the creature rises up again and kills Strickland. It then picks up Elisa’s body and jumps into the sea. Using the godlike powers that he possesses, he was able to revive Elisa, giving her gills, and they live happily ever after.

The character development is well done for many of the characters. We see Elisa go from a quiet, shy girl to a brave independent woman. Strickland, with his arrogance, gets taken down a peg with his injury making him bitter throughout the film and hungry for vengeance. Stuhlbarg’s character was just a scientist doing his job for the Soviet Union, but he grows to care for the creature. While Strickland wanted to study it, the Soviets just wanted it dead so that the Americans don’t gain knowledge from it. We sympathize with Giles throughout the film that the way he lives is what holding him back in life. When he tried to move forward to the pie shop owner, the owner feels threatened and bans him from the shop. He, too, grows to care for the creature. In fact, the moment he laid on it, he says, “He’s beautiful.”

My mother, who watched the film with me. Didn’t like how Strickland, while having sex with his wife, he puts his bleeding hand over mouth to shut her up. I agree and I find that gross as well, but I feel you would expect that from a guy like him.
I don’t care what you say about bestiality or what have you, I didn’t think that at all. I congratulate The Shape of Water on its four Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director Guillermo del Toro, Best Original Score Alexandre Desplat, and Best Production Design Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieu, and Paul D. Austerberry. I feel, however, that Sally Hawkins was snubbed for Best Actress as she did the entire movie in sign language.

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Released On: December 22, 2017
Rating: R
Stars: Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.4/10

Awards
Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Winner
• Best Director Guillermo del Toro - Winner
• Best Actress Sally Hawkins - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor - Richard Jenkins
• Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer
• Best Original Screenplay Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor - Nominated
• Best Cinematography Dan Laustsen - Nominated
• Best Costume Design Luis Sequeira - Nominated
• Best Film Editing Sidney Wolinsky - Nominated
• Best Original Score Alexandre Desplat - Winner
• Best Production Design - Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau & Jeff Melvin - Nominated
• Best Sound Editing Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern & Glen Gauthier - Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

• Best Motion Picture Drama - Nominated
• Best Actress Motion Picture Drama Sally Hawkins - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture Richard Jenkins - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture Octavia Spencer - Nominated
• Best Director Guillermo del Toro - Winner
• Best Screenplay Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor - Nominated
• Best Original Score Alexandre Desplat - Winner

(Click here to view more awards for "The Shape of Water")