Saturday 16 December 2017

Review: The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water (2017) - Guillermo Del Toro

       Sometimes movies are great because they surprise you, and not just narrative surprises where the filmmakers make you think the story is going in one direction and then they twist it at the last moment (Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are the same person?!). Sometimes a movie can be a great surprise because it's such a batshit crazy concept (Single people are turned into animals in a dystopian future). But sometimes a movie can be surprising in just how clear its vision is, and how well they are able to execute it from the very beginning. The Shape of Water is that kind of movie. Guillermo Del Toro could certainly never be accused of lacking vision, but rarely have I found his movies so clear in voice and purpose. The Shape of Water is at times as traditional a love story as any movie so clearly based in the nostalgic era of the 1950s Golden Age of Cinema could be, and at the same time is about a grown woman falling in love with a mythical merman, a quasi-sexy creature from the Pan's Labyrinth Lagoon. And it's great.
       The first five minutes of the movie so perfectly set up the whole film that's coming, so succinctly show us what kind of movie we are going to see that I want to watch it over and over. The movie is so emotionally rich and dreamlike and ethereal. Its characters are crafted with so much love and attention the fact that the movie is about fish-man fucking barely even phases you. This movie executes exactly the story it wants to tell, and it does it pretty wonderfully.
       In what I'm guessing is the 1950s, Eliza (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaning lady at a government science facility lives a life of routine. She works nights. She hard boils eggs before work and shares some with her bald, failing ad-illustrator neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins). She goes to work, usually late, where her friend and coworker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) holds her place in line at the clock-in station. I need to take this moment to clearly define how incredible Sally Hawkins is in this movie. Without saying a word, with carefully blocked scenes that show such insight into her life, and her warm smile and expressive eyes that say more than words usually can, she makes Eliza is a fully-formed character before the story even starts. She has so much warmth, but at the same time displays  a quiet sadness, an isolation that being mute never lets her forget.
        The movie wastes no time after that getting right into it. Michael Shannon shows up in the lab that Eliza and Zelda are cleaning as a menacing government agent with a certain asset contained in a metal water tank. What's inside, in case you haven't seen the commercials but are reading this review anyway, is the Amphibian Man, a possible God-like creature that the US government found off the coasts of South America. Michael Shannon sure does hate this abomination, as he is the most ultimate epitome of white, male, dominant, cruel-hearted motherfuckerness. Admission: I love Michael Shannon more than basically any other actor. He is my favorite, and I want to see him in everything. (Have you seen Take Shelter? Christ Almighty do yourself a favor and see Take Shelter) He takes a possibly two-dimensional, evil character and infuses him with so much squeamish  nuance, fright, and fascinating mental-instability wrapped in a Christian Family man. You hate him, but you want to watch him.
       Eliza has an instant connection to the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), a beautiful but misunderstood creature. He's clearly intelligent but can't communicate it with the humans who have captured him. This obviously rings true for Eliza, who shares her hard-boiled eggs and teaches him  about music. It's so goddamn sweet and Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones really make this pairing work. However, as Michael Shannon gets more unhinged (and less-limbed and more necrotic) it becomes clear to Eliza that she needs to help her new friend escape, and Eliza can't do it alone.
       Every relationship in this movie is treated with so much consideration and care. While the relationship between Amphibian Man and Eliza takes the stage, there's also her friendship with her neighbor Richard Jenkins' Giles, a lonely recovering alcoholic who tries and tries to make good, either professionally or romantically, but just can't. The mute and the amphibious creature from another world aren't the only people in the world who are seen as outcasts. This movie lets the importance of connection permeate through all its characters, even taking Octavia Spencer's constant (funny) griping about her husband into a small moment of emotional catharsis towards the end.
        This movie is a confident retelling of the kind of story that has been around for a long time. At this point it kind of needs a retelling to stay relevant. However, I don't want you to think that just having merman-woman sex is all Del Toro offers in the way of re-imagining (it doesn't hurt), but what he really does is  create a distinct style and tone that permeates throughout every scene and makes us truly understand our characters' places in this world. Del Toro truly cares about everyone who shows up in it. The characters are always the emotional center of the film. It works. Even when it gets possibly silly or too strange, it works so well. I mean, damn, he somehow makes a black-and-white tap dancing musical sequence in the vein of a Fred Astaire movie between a woman and Fish Creature not only totally track, but actually be a beautiful character moment born out of Eliza's deepest desires. This movie is great.

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, it was dope. I had no doubt about how well I was going to like it. I read somewhere how del Toro said this is the first movie hey was able to exhale on and do something he's never done before.

    Oddly enough I didn't realize until after my girlfriend and I watched it that we had a quasi-del Toro marathon. Watching Crimson Peaks one day, then Pacific Rim and the next this.

    ReplyDelete