Synopsis: Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. As Elisa develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Stuhlbarg
Released: 2018
It took two viewings of The Shape of Water before I could settle on my opinion and write this review. I see plenty of film’s twice, and often write reviews knowing full well that my opinion will likely shift after a second viewing (Phantom Thread is a great example of this). It’s rare, however, for me to refrain from reviewing a film before a second viewing. And, having seen The Shape of Water twice, I can say with confidence: I love it! On my initial viewing, I felt as if something was missing, but I couldn’t but quite put my finger on it. The question in these situations is always: was the film missing something, or was I missing something? In this case, it was the latter, because Guillermo del Toro has crafted a near perfect film, a fairytale about love and monsters.
The storytelling here is nearly flawless. The falsehood that is often thrown about it: show, don’t tell. In actuality, telling a story can be even more beautiful, but it is much harder to pull off the ‘tell’ approach without seeming as if the film is overly preachy or expositional. Del Toro is the master of storytelling, and here, he blends the show and tell approaches to construct a film that, on the surface, is a fairytale about love and monsters, but beneath is about the way that the world treats people that are different. The cast are all excellent: Michael Shannon is the big menacing villain that the story needs, and as the film progresses, he follows a downward trajectory into evil and villainy. Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg and Richard Jenkins are all marvellous support, but this film is all about its two central performances. Doug Jones is excellent as the creature, communicating so much with so little. His performance is almost dance-like in precision and quality. The star, however, is Sally Hawkins as Eliza, who is phenomenal. Without uttering a word, Hawkins creates a real character with inner pain. Her emotions dance across her face, and in key scenes, Eliza is the loudest character on screen, despite the fact that she is mute. If you’re unconvinced by the film’s plot, The Shape of Water is worth your time for Hawkins’ performance alone.
The technical elements are of course all perfect. Alexandre Desplat’s score is sweeping and beautiful, and del Toro’s choice of colour pallet is particularly effective. Despite the fairytale nature of the story, The Shape of Water always feels real, in part because of del Toro’s intimate direction. It’s also worth noting that this is a really well constructed film. Act 1 is all setup and world/character building; Act 2 is the film’s tense yet fun action element, while the third Act is all about dealing with the consequences of the narrative. These three distinct sections keep the film fresh, and allows The Shape of Water to maintain a breezy pace. There are plenty of standout moments, which I can’t get into without going into spoilers, but del Toro knows when to hit the audience with emotional beats, and I was caught off guard not by the fact that the film was affecting, but by the way in which it impacted me.
I do still have some minor criticisms: there is one scene between Michael Shannon’s Strickland and a General, in which the General utters a line that felt out of character. The line was more about serving the film’s point than being true to the character, and del Toro is walking such a fine balance between fairytale and realism that, at any point, a misplaced line threatens to bring the whole illusion down. For a second, I was taken out of the film, and could see the narrative construction in front of me. However, the fact that there are so few of these moments (there’s one more line at the end in which Strickland tells us what to think of the creature, but it isn’t really earned) is really impressive, and the reason that The Shape of Water works so well – this is such a cohesive film that I was simply swept away in the beauty of the narrative, in a way that only del Toro can. I suspect my first viewing frustrations stemmed from these small moments: the film is so damn near perfect, that the brief moments where it stumbles really stand out. Honestly, this criticism is more of a compliment to the rest of the film and, on second viewing, I really only cared about these moments for the brief seconds in which they occur.
Looking at the film as a whole, del Toro has crafted something really special here. An investing character piece with action, emotion and drama. It’s the characters that really make the film, and the characters that will stick with me. I love the title, and what it means in the context of the end of the film. Simply put, this isn’t just a well made movie, but a beautiful story.
In a word: Hawkins shines in this magnificent fairytale romance about love and acceptance. I was swept up in a narrative that immerses the viewer with an incredible blend of fantastical realism. The Shape of Water is a thing of beauty.
Grade: A
Come back later this week for our Top 10 Oscar Snubs 2018, followed by next week’s Ranked: Best Picture Nominees 2018!
Want to stay up to date with everything published on the blog? Follow our twitter account, @FilmDiscursion, and never miss another update. Want to read more of our content? Why not try the following articles:
REVIEW: Black Panther (Spoiler Free)
IN DEPTH: Black Panther (Spoiler Review)
RANKED: Denis Villeneuve Films
SCHMOEDOWN: Innergeekdom and Sneider vs Ellis
SCHMOEDOWN: Top 10 vs IGN and Harris vs Hall
The Schmoedown Breakdown 
4 thoughts on “REVIEW: The Shape of Water”