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After going large scale with 2013’s “Pacific Rim” and gothic with 2015’s
“Crimson Peak,” writer/director Guillermo del Toro tries a little tenderness on
for size with “The Shape of Water,” but warm and cuddly means something slightly
different to the famously fantastical filmmaker. He’s created a romance (written
with Vanessa Taylor) with his own unique fingerprints, eschewing dewy acts of
tenderness for a bloodier, more hostile examination of forbidden connection,
which also features far more masturbation than I’m sure any viewer is expecting.
Offered a chance to make an R-rated fantasy that celebrates a love for monsters
and the kindness of strangers, and del Toro runs with it, delivering his best
effort in years, preserving his idiosyncrasies and extremities with an often
wonderfully bizarre movie.
Elisa (Sally Hawkins, 2014's
Godzilla) is a mute who lives alone, maintaining a
friendship with her neighbor, closeted artist Giles (Richard Jenkins, 2017's
Kong: Skull Island). She works as a janitor at the Occom Aerospace Research
Facility, enjoying a cleaning routine with her loquacious co-worker, Zelda
(Octavia Spencer, 2016's
Zootopia). Keeping to herself, Elisa’s curiosity in
awakened when the Asset (Doug Jones, 2008's
Hellboy II: The Golden Army) is
brought in for study by Strickland (Michael Shannon, 2015's Midnight Special), a
vicious man who’s been tasked with researching this amphibious humanoid
creature, with plans to use information to compete in the newly energized Space
Race with the Soviets. Tending to the lab that houses the new acquisition, Elisa
makes an attempt to befriend the Asset, offering him eggs to eat and music to
listen to after long days enduring torture at the hands of Strickland. Elisa and
the Asset bond, but time is running out, with sympathetic Dr. Robert (Michael Stuhlbarg, 2016's
Arrival), a spy for a Soviets, realizing that the U.S.
Government won’t allow the Asset to live much longer, putting pressure on Elisa
to think up a plan to protect her love.
“The Shape of Water” doesn’t hide the special del Toro stamp of eccentricity,
conjuring a retro feel for the early 1960s, with Elisa living in highly
cinematic world where her apartment is located above a movie theater, down the
street from a chocolate factory. Her living space is crumbling, rich with
textures and wetness, but she maintains a positive existence, preserving
curiosity about the world through her senses, while time with Giles and his
endlessly neurotic ways provides her with company, creating a seemingly
agreeable life. She has a morning routine del Toro emphasizes, using time to
hard-boil eggs to enjoy a quick masturbation session in the bath, which is the
first speed bump in the fantasyland, finding sexuality underlined throughout
“The Shape of Water,” keeping Elisa a woman with healthy appetites and a big
heart, strengthening understanding of her interest in the Asset.
The feature looks like other del Toro productions, embracing incredibly detailed
environments and outstanding creature design work on the Asset, which appears to
scratch all the Gill-Man itches the director had left over from his time on two
“Hellboy” pictures. There’s no doubt that “The Shape of Water” looks amazing,
with aquatic motifs and cavernous sets to work with. However, del Toro and
Taylor are working on a more intimate study of longing, with all the tech
credits coming secondary to heartache, finding Elisa reaching out to a creature
for companionship, taking a chance on a mystery beast from deepest South
America, sparking to something pure about the arrival. Giles has his needs too,
trying to catch the eye of a young man who owns a chain pie shop, enduring awful
baked goods just to spend a moment with the handsome guy. Even Zelda has a bit
of a home life, struggling with her deadbeat husband. Cruelties and connections
register deeply, giving “The Shape of Water” emotional potency, finding poetic
moments in the midst of a Cold War thriller, watching Dr. Robert deal with his
need to protect the Asset and remain a Soviet spy, and there’s more of a blunt
edge with Strickland, who’s insatiable need to humiliate adds antagonism to the
effort, as del Toro has never been one to refuse a chance to underline evil.
There’s a love story in the midst of all the initial meeting and escape plans,
and it goes where few might think it will, offering surprises to savor and
experimentation from del Toro, who retains the Asset’s wild nature, but creates
a Beast for the Beauty, indulging in some fantasy sequences. The director's never
been good with third acts, and “The Shape of Water” is no exception, stretching
the chase out past its expiration date, but the set-up is really where the
feature counts the most. Actually creating a glow around the union of Elisa and
the Asset, del Toro pulls off an impressive feat, and while the film isn’t a
radical departure for del Toro, it’s his most cohesively sincere picture in
years, confidently handling this attempt at a dark fable. The Shape of Water is
a special movie with relevant themes and a strong emotional payoff. It rebukes
intolerance, affirms love in all its forms and guises, and does so with a strong
dose of adventure and suspense. This is one of the year’s best motion pictures.
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