Review: The Shape Of Water

Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

In the years since his masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth," director Guillermo del Toro has primarily focused on big budget action films ("Pacific Rim") and horror movies ("Crimson Peak"), most of which have been good, but - to be honest - merely well-made genre exercises as opposed to the revelation that "Pan's Labyrinth" turned out to be. I'm glad to report that "The Shape of Water" is not only a delightful fantasy with sumptuous visuals, a number of excellent performances by great character actors and an effectively subtle take on prejudice, but also del Toro's best film since "Pan's Labyrinth." 

In the film, a terrific Sally Hawkins plays Eliza Esposito, a mute maid who communicates solely through sign language and works in an underground laboratory in Baltimore, circa 1963. Her only friends are Zelda (Octavia Spencer), who is her partner in cleaning the laboratory, and a gay neighbor named Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is addicted to eating pie and watching old musicals with Eliza.

One day, a stern man known as Strickland (a frightening Michael Shannon) turns up at the laboratory with a large container. Both the man and container will make a brief stay at the lab for an experiment of a mysterious nature. As Eliza soon finds out, the container holds a being from South America that bears some resemblance to the Creature from the Black Lagoon and is apparently worshipped as some sort of god. Strickland and the creature clearly hate each other, which is exemplified when the latter bites off two fingers of the former.

Eliza becomes attached to the creature, feeding it eggs and playing old Benny Goodman records for it, and the two form a bond. A doctor named Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), also takes a shine to the monster and wants to study - rather than destroy - it, although he has a few skeletons in his closet. But Strickland is hell-bent on killing it and ripping it open to find out how it could benefit the U.S. space program - this is the only story element that remains frustratingly vague. Eliza enlists a few of her friends for a jail break and, in the process, a romance - well, at least something to that effect - blossoms between her and the creature.

The film is set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, which is clearly used to comment upon Strickland and his military pals' fear of the creature - which represents the unknown. In the backdrop on Giles' TV, black protesters are seen being sprayed by police hoses and Giles witnesses a black couple being refused service at a diner where he'd previously admired - and had a crush on - the owner. The film also lampoons the chauvinist American male ego, especially during a scene in which Shannon's character is sold a Cadillac (that is later hilariously wrecked), another in which he robotically has sex with his wife and asks her to remain quiet and, during a not-so funny moment, sexually harasses Eliza.

Del Toro has a vivid imagination and is a filmmaker who can bring his dreams beautifully to life onscreen. There are a number of lovely moments in this film - a scene in which Eliza fills her bathroom with water to allow her and the creature to float together, an imagined musical number in which her voice is finally heard and a scene in which the creature befriends Giles' cats, that is, after eating one and then feeling sorry about it. "The Shape of Water" is at once an intense thriller, a beautifully shot period piece, a story about tolerance, a romance and an espionage picture. It juggles all of these elements gracefully and ends on a mythic note. I'd highly recommend it.