The Shape of Water

Sometimes a movie comes along that's so unique and well crafted that it will sear itself into your memory for a while. 

The Shape of Water, the newest brainchild from uber-creative director Guillermo del Toro, is one of those films and it's easy to see why the hype has been building for this for quite sometime. 

Truly my biggest concern with the film isn't about the film at all. Not that it really matters what the public thinks about a film, I do wonder if this will struggle to find an audience because of its oddities. 

On paper, the film is immensely weird and almost sounds kind of dumb: a mute girl falls in love with a creature that the government has captured at the facility she cleans. It sounds like it may be the makings of a Disney animated feature and given that it's an R-rated, adult drama many may wonder what's so special about this and equally concerned about how weird that premise is. 

But The Shape of Water works, stupendously really, because of Guillermo del Toro and his dedication to his vision. This movie is weird, but in a way that it both embraces and never goes so far off the rails that it seems weird for the sake of being weird (the absolute worst). Instead it focuses on its more human elements to gain trust from the audience and take you along for what really is an R-rated Disney princess tale.

The first thing you'll notice and the thing you'll be continuously appreciating throughout the film is the vision. Del Toro is a director who, at his finest moments, can put exactly what's in his head onto the screen. This is captured by gorgeous, elaborate sets, appropriate costumes, stunning cinematography, and highly inventive, detailed creatures -- or in this case, a singular creature. His touch and brainpower bleeds through the entire film and is often reminiscent of his classic, Pan's Labyrinth. The creature himself is intricately detailed and curiously human while still being wholly exotic and fresh. It's always exciting to see a film where you can tell it's truly the actual vision of someone put onto the screen and The Shape of Water is one of the best examples of that so far this year. 

"Pretty doggie!" [gets hand bitten off]

A wonderfully memorable character

Equally as impressive is the story being told and the performances that come along with it. The script is well written and starts with a wonderful, powerful intro from Richard Jenkins' Giles asking how one might go about telling this story and it's consistently potent from there. In fact, the script is decently minimal because of the main character, Elisa, being mute. Often that means when someone does talk, it's meaningful. And even despite being mute, Sally Hawkins gives one of the best performances of the year as a lonely, kind woman who has finally found love beyond her affliction. She has a lot to do here, even if she can't speak, and she fully dedicates herself to the role and her relationship with the creature becomes a very real one and feels real too. It's a testament to many things, but probably her performance most of all. Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer are delightful co-stars and they provide most of the dialogue and humor in the film. Michael Shannon plays what may be the year's best villain in Richard Strickland who is clearly a bit unhinged but is also delivered a deliciously evil script.

Shape of Water is honestly just a well made film too. Its pacing is exquisite with only a few parts that seemed to slightly lag, I already mentioned the cinematography but it's some of the year's best so it's worth mentioning again, and the original music is similarly some of the year's best. This is truly a film that is firing on all cylinders and it results in some really memorable scenes and a lovely sense of movie magic throughout. 

Gosh he's a dreamboat.

I really don't know how often I would watch The Shape of Water, but that shouldn't detract from what is a undoubtedly professional, inventive, and quality film. I do worry about it finding any sort of audience because I imagine that no one really thinks a good film could come out of the R-rated love story featuring a Creature-from-the-Black-Lagoon-lookalike, but again, that's not something that affects the quality of the film. So the best I can do is encourage you to go see this film and keep an open mind because it is a delight and worthy of your time. 

CONS

• A small handful of scenes I didn't feel were necessary
• The final scenes seemed a bit anticlimactic and rushed

PROS

• It feels like a straight transport of the vision that was in del Toro's mind to the screen in front of you
• Imaginative and weird without being overly so. A good balance of realism and the bizarre
• Fantastic performances all around, particularly by Hawkins and Shannon
• Story that plays like an iconic Disney-princes tale with an R-rated twist
• Cinematography that captures this vision ideally
• Wonderful and fitting original score
• Carefully planned script and superb pacing -- it moves right along but also lets you feel the connection between characters
• A highly unique love story that is packaged inside a supremely well-made film

Rath's Review Score | 9/10