The thing most people probably need to remember about
Guillermo del Toro is that the man might be the greatest monster
movie creator of his generation. No subject is too weird, no concept
too taboo. The man just seems to despise things that would be
considered normal by society and finds a way to both twist them into
monstrosities of cinematic creepiness and imbue them with the soul
necessary to make any audience sympathize with these grotesque
characters and whatever weird plight they happen to be going through.
He does this by having the talent to ask the questions no sane
audience member or other filmmaker has EVER had the urge to ask
first. In the case of The Shape of Water: what if the lady being kidnapped by the Creature from the Black Lagoon...was just some kind of weird bestial foreplay?
Yes, like most del Toro movies, Shape is awesome. The
dark aesthetic of a 1960s America in the height of Cold War hysteria
lends the film a paranoid overtone, Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones are
brilliant without ever uttering a word, Octavia Spencer and Richard
Jenkins are fun as outcasts living their own versions of a broken
American dream and the actual wonky concept (What if a girl could
fall in love with a fishman?) is sold for ever amount of discomfort
it can muster. This isn't your grandparent's kind of monster movie.
This is a creature feature told through the eyes of a fishman whose
only question winds up being “Why am I surrounded by so many
monsters?” It rips us for our pettiness and makes us the monsters.
How mind-blowing is that?
Unfortunately, while Hawkins and Jones work mostly due
to their excellent pantomime skills and a lot of work was done to
hammer home the big message of accepting differences, Michael
Shannon's government stooge uber-patriot ultimately feels like a
miscast in an otherwise stellar group of actors. I won't criticize
Shannon for taking work when its offered, but creating a by-the-book
character who's personal beliefs drive him off the rails just doesn't
feel like something the man is able to handle here. Shannon is fun as
a philosophical psychopath. A person who destroys for his own inward
obsessions and unshakable beliefs in his own concepts of good and
evil and, ultimately, this character just doesn't play to those
strengths. Seriously, how did they make Michael Shannon bad at
something?
As for watching it, go for it. I'd be lying if I said
the concept (a love story with fish) isn't wildly off-putting or how
they convey that message (it involves flooding a bathroom) isn't
uncomfortable to watch play out, but this is still del Toro at his
best: a fairy tale that plays like a nightmare but still wants the
fair tale ending. If anything, it just proves once again that the
man has a vision that only he will ever be able to bring to fruition
(not sure if that's a compliment or a blessing).
Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim) proves once again that
no one makes weird Cthulu monster movies quite like he does with The
Shape of Water, a beautifully filmed, pleasantly awkward,
fish-out-of-water (literally) love story that no one could have seen
coming. While working her night shift as a cleaning woman at a
government-funded aquatic research lab, mute outcast Elisa (Hawkins)
enounters Amphibian Man (Jones), a captured fish-man hybrid who is
being held for medical experimentation by a ruthless government
stooge (Shannon) for the sake of further study into atmosphere
testing for the still young space program. When she finds out they
plan to euthanize and dissect the creature, she absolves to free him
back into the ocean and...love ensues? Seriously, this is the
weirdest romance ever. Don't question how its possible. Don't wonder
what she's thinking. Just go see it for yourself.
My score: 8/10. I will never look at aquariums the same
way again. Thanks, Guillermo del Toro?
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