The Shape of Water (2017)

After much anticipation, I was hoping The Shape of Water was going to be macabre fantasy auteur Guillermo Del Toro's masterpiece. His gloomy love letter to the creature he's adored and honoured throughout his films so admirably has so much promise. Del Toro has championed monsters in many forms with almost everything he's done and people such as myself and others who share his love of them have appreciated all of it. Even Pacific Rim, where he was a studio's director for hire, still wonderfully homaged all things Mecha and the giant Kaiju lore as best he could. Shape is a Guillermo love story - and fittingly it is between woman and creature, not woman and man or even human and human, as it is the only way the director could express such a story. A modern day, "mature" Beauty and the Beast perhaps? Seemingly yes, but the film is reaching for something more in it's depths.

It does allude to a "prince and princess" in Gile's (Richard Jenkins) opening voice over, but by the end of it, titles or status are not relevant. Think more animal to animal. A bond that cannot be manifested by words. A physical love born out of loneliness and necessity. That still kind of sounds like typical, almost cliche for a love story, or a fairy tale (which this is). Thinking like that almost does this very strange film a disservice though, to look at it with those tropes in mind even though Del Toro plays them straight to bone in so many moments. Metaphors abound, but do work. There is a lovingly directed musical number late in the film and I think by this point is where the audience will either understand his motive, agenda and passions or just.. laugh maybe.

This is (is this?) bestiality people probably wonder but because the love story is approached so seriously and performed so amazingly by Sally Hawkins (as Eliza) it creates a weird limbo. About as weird as the premise when you dwell on it. And if you do, it will dwell on you that here is a film about a mute woman in complete love (and lust) with a thing that is more creature than man and it's being treated with such adoration and shot so beautifully that it's normal - fantasy, but normal, and gaining huge admiration from the critics nonetheless. Just like Beauty and the Beast maybe? For me the similarities end on face value and Shape feels linked to Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth more than any other Del Toro effort.

Sadly, the film does have plot holes that most will tend to focus on and in turn consider the film laboured, or not worthy of (massive) praise. Despite the fact that many other great, respected films display similar or more intrusive script stumbles - but heck, I guess they're not as "weird". Air tight it isn't, but I didn't think any moment or scene lacked intent, was pointless or necessary "padding". Very little bothered me personally and I found the pace pitch perfect; the score and soundtrack to die for; the performances from all exceptional despite Michael Shannon doing his usual intense bastard schtick. The only point I needed it to work was to be convinced Eliza and the Amphibian man were truly in love; that Eliza's motives were genuine, moving and believable - even for fantasy...sadly I left needing more. There is no question this film displays love in all it's unfiltered, unpatronising, un-superficial glory, and there are moments towards the end that almost made me cry that that love was rendered so well, but Eliza's infatuation of the creature in the beginning was lacking for me. There are scenes/moments executed to help me believe why or how this love was born, but I needed more to make this experience perfect. The relationship that develops and carries throughout the movie was convincing, but I feel what I was asked to do initially, I couldn't make it.

Guillermo is a creature guy. His heroes were the Universal Monsters. A true master of dark storytelling, I'm amazed this film is doing so well in the mainstream considering it's basically The Creature from the Black Lagoon finds love. That passion, alongside his first class directing ability and perpetually immaculate production design, is exemplified by the creature being totally created via practical make up and played wonderfully be Del Toro creature suit regular, Doug Jones. Overall, the film requires several different levels of suspension of disbelief; some on ground level, others on the fantasy level - the issue is, the blending of the straight movie and fantasy film are so transparent, so wonderfully achieved, you're thrown off by how unique the final product is. We've seen this level before in the films of Jeunet and Caro in many ways for example, but this is a creature guy doing it. The dude that takes monsters and gives them humanity. For that, I cannot love this film more, but I feel I just needed a little more convincing from where Eliza's love was born to truly consider The Shape of Water his masterpiece, but it's close, and it's wonderful.

#theshapeofwater #Guillermodeltoro #sallyhawkins #michaelshannon #fantasy #fairytale