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Film: The Shape of Water
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Rating: R
When I watched Pan's Labyrinth for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. I knew that the film had an audience, but no one I knew ever talked about the film. Probably because the whole film was in Spanish and that language barrier would cause some to be hesitant. Regardless of box office success and critical response, I went into Pan's Labyrinth with next to no knowledge about it, other than a tribute song that one of my favorite electronic music producers created that I had on repeat. Little did I know that this foreign film would become one of my, if not absolute, favorite films of all time. I had no idea a Spanish film would cement my love for films, and helped me look a little deeper into their capabilities of visual story telling. Since 2016, Pan's Labyrinth has been one of my favorite films that I have ever watched, with its original story telling, blend of fairy tales and reality that works in harmony with each other, and brilliant cinematography and characters. Coming into mid-2017, when I found out Guillermo del Toro was creating another film with a similar tone as Pan's Labyrinth, I was excited and intrigued. What can del Toro bring to the table this time? Will lightning strike twice? After watching the film, I can say that The Shape of Water, while, for me, is not as good as Pan's Labyrinth, is still great, with its well paced story, wonderful acting, and beautiful cinematography. However, the tone of the film did teeter a little bit for me and I felt that del Toro borrowed a little too much from his film Pan's Labyrinth at times.
The Shape of Water centers around Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute janitor for a government laboratory, who comes across a creature that was recently captured by the United States military on a trek through South America. The creature, known as The Asset (Doug Jones), and Elisa began to interact with one another, and eventually begin to fall in love with each other. The head of the research team, Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), is not very fond of The Asset. After having an incident with the creature resulting in the loss of two of his fingers, Strickland feels the need to show his disposition and dominance over the creature, while the research team seeks to find a way to study the creature to get an edge on the Russians in the space race, with one of the scientists (Michael Stuhlbarg) secretly working as a double agent for the Russians, who also happens to develop a fondness for The Asset.
What really sticks out to me in this film is the acting from Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, and Doug Jones. The performances from these three were excellent. Hawkins' ability to bring so much character and emotion to a character who is mute was phenomenal, speaking few to no words at all (with the exception of one scene). Hawkins had to speak utilizing sign language and facial expressions, which she executed greatly. Michael Shannon was no slouch either with his character, filled with dominance, rage, and power. Shannon steals nearly every scene he is in. Doug Jones, this being another venture with del Toro, was excellent as well, with his portrayal as The Asset. Jones' experience in playing movie monsters is showcased here excellently, often times myself forgetting that is Jones himself portraying the creature.
The story itself is executed well, with no scene going to waste. A lot of the scenes deal with the establishment and development of our characters, with the film taking advantage of the fact that film itself is a visual story telling medium. We are shown Elisa's daily routine before work along with establishing her character in a scene where she masturbates in the bathtub as she preps her lunch for work, showcasing her loneliness in her love life. The Asset's ferality is showcased as well, with his defensive and skittish nature early on in his interactions with humans, along with his curiosity with Elisa and intelligence with the ability to learn sign language, much like Koko the Gorilla in real life. Strickland also gets this treatment of character establishment, with his dialogue and speech delivery of assertion and dominance showcasing who he is, even down to the way he has sex with his wife, utilizing the missionary position, where the woman lies beneath the man, and how he uses the urinal, with both hands on his hips. There is very little filler in this film in regards to these scenes. Even a scene where Strickland is buying a car feeds into his character, choosing the car that shows off his wealth and power, along with said car being damaged later in the film, representing a damage to his power and reputation. The only thing missing really is Strickland wearing a diamond studded watch to show off his reputation.
The film itself is dazzling, with a pristine shine and vibe that only del Toro could bring to the table. The colors of this film are nicely stylized that give off the vibe of the early 1960s: bright, shiny, and warm, even if that decade had its darker moments, especially with the Cold War hanging over everyone's heads. The scenes inside the laboratory also establish an atmosphere of mystery and grit, with cool and mute colors, a contrast to the outside world. In fact, del Toro establishes a contrast of tones within this film of romanticism, cleanliness, and positivity prevalent in the outside world, to the grit, dirtiness, and violence within the laboratory, before the two essentially collide in the third act of the film as it heavily rains outside. Not to mention, the visual aspects for The Asset were incredible, with a mixture of makeup and CGI that blend together seamlessly. Couple that with the aforementioned acting of Doug Jones, and you have yourself a beautiful and near realistic movie monster.
This Shape of Water isn't perfect, however. With the contrasting tones established, I feel that the film has a little trouble balancing them at times. There are some tonal inconsistencies within the grit of the laboratory, with Zelda Fuller's (Octavia Spencer) comedic dialogue kind of cracking the tone of the scene at times. I feel also that the romance that develops between Elisa and The Asset isn't paced as well as it could have been, as it feels like their falling in love with each other happens a little fast. I think a little more development could have been put in, as opposed to a time lapse of chopped scenes developing such interactions. The Shape of Water also draws parallels to one of Guillermo del Toro's previous films, that of Pan's Labyrinth. While I do like that there is a little crossover between these two films stylistically, it does tend to get in the way at times within the story, much of it dealing with some of the characters themselves being very similar to those in Pan's Labyrinth: like how Zelda is, to a degree, Mercedes, Strickland is like Captain Vidal, and Robert is similar to Doctor Ferrerio. To me, it feels as if del Toro borrows a little too much from Pan's Labyrinth at times, like the bittersweet ending, the villains dominant nature, and his abuse towards his defector(s). I find it unfortunate that The Shape of Water kind of uses some of Pan's Labyrinth's elements as a bit of a crutch at times.
Overall though, I found The Shape of Water to be a very enjoyable film, and the best film I've seen in 2017, even if I didn't really see very many movies this year. I find it an interesting take on movie monster films, where instead of it being a horror film, it's a love story. I found the acting phenomenal, the story well executed, for the most part, and boasting beautiful visuals and cinematography. Even though the tone is a bit uneven at times and the borrowing of elements from one of del Toro's previous films does hurt the film a little bit, I still found this film to be heavily enjoyable and worth the watch. I look forward to what Guillermo del Toro has in store for us next.
Verdict: 8/10 (Glad I used my bathroom card right before Elisa and The Asset had sex. I didn't want to have that image burned into my mind).
The Shape of Water centers around Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute janitor for a government laboratory, who comes across a creature that was recently captured by the United States military on a trek through South America. The creature, known as The Asset (Doug Jones), and Elisa began to interact with one another, and eventually begin to fall in love with each other. The head of the research team, Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), is not very fond of The Asset. After having an incident with the creature resulting in the loss of two of his fingers, Strickland feels the need to show his disposition and dominance over the creature, while the research team seeks to find a way to study the creature to get an edge on the Russians in the space race, with one of the scientists (Michael Stuhlbarg) secretly working as a double agent for the Russians, who also happens to develop a fondness for The Asset.
What really sticks out to me in this film is the acting from Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, and Doug Jones. The performances from these three were excellent. Hawkins' ability to bring so much character and emotion to a character who is mute was phenomenal, speaking few to no words at all (with the exception of one scene). Hawkins had to speak utilizing sign language and facial expressions, which she executed greatly. Michael Shannon was no slouch either with his character, filled with dominance, rage, and power. Shannon steals nearly every scene he is in. Doug Jones, this being another venture with del Toro, was excellent as well, with his portrayal as The Asset. Jones' experience in playing movie monsters is showcased here excellently, often times myself forgetting that is Jones himself portraying the creature.
The story itself is executed well, with no scene going to waste. A lot of the scenes deal with the establishment and development of our characters, with the film taking advantage of the fact that film itself is a visual story telling medium. We are shown Elisa's daily routine before work along with establishing her character in a scene where she masturbates in the bathtub as she preps her lunch for work, showcasing her loneliness in her love life. The Asset's ferality is showcased as well, with his defensive and skittish nature early on in his interactions with humans, along with his curiosity with Elisa and intelligence with the ability to learn sign language, much like Koko the Gorilla in real life. Strickland also gets this treatment of character establishment, with his dialogue and speech delivery of assertion and dominance showcasing who he is, even down to the way he has sex with his wife, utilizing the missionary position, where the woman lies beneath the man, and how he uses the urinal, with both hands on his hips. There is very little filler in this film in regards to these scenes. Even a scene where Strickland is buying a car feeds into his character, choosing the car that shows off his wealth and power, along with said car being damaged later in the film, representing a damage to his power and reputation. The only thing missing really is Strickland wearing a diamond studded watch to show off his reputation.
The film itself is dazzling, with a pristine shine and vibe that only del Toro could bring to the table. The colors of this film are nicely stylized that give off the vibe of the early 1960s: bright, shiny, and warm, even if that decade had its darker moments, especially with the Cold War hanging over everyone's heads. The scenes inside the laboratory also establish an atmosphere of mystery and grit, with cool and mute colors, a contrast to the outside world. In fact, del Toro establishes a contrast of tones within this film of romanticism, cleanliness, and positivity prevalent in the outside world, to the grit, dirtiness, and violence within the laboratory, before the two essentially collide in the third act of the film as it heavily rains outside. Not to mention, the visual aspects for The Asset were incredible, with a mixture of makeup and CGI that blend together seamlessly. Couple that with the aforementioned acting of Doug Jones, and you have yourself a beautiful and near realistic movie monster.
This Shape of Water isn't perfect, however. With the contrasting tones established, I feel that the film has a little trouble balancing them at times. There are some tonal inconsistencies within the grit of the laboratory, with Zelda Fuller's (Octavia Spencer) comedic dialogue kind of cracking the tone of the scene at times. I feel also that the romance that develops between Elisa and The Asset isn't paced as well as it could have been, as it feels like their falling in love with each other happens a little fast. I think a little more development could have been put in, as opposed to a time lapse of chopped scenes developing such interactions. The Shape of Water also draws parallels to one of Guillermo del Toro's previous films, that of Pan's Labyrinth. While I do like that there is a little crossover between these two films stylistically, it does tend to get in the way at times within the story, much of it dealing with some of the characters themselves being very similar to those in Pan's Labyrinth: like how Zelda is, to a degree, Mercedes, Strickland is like Captain Vidal, and Robert is similar to Doctor Ferrerio. To me, it feels as if del Toro borrows a little too much from Pan's Labyrinth at times, like the bittersweet ending, the villains dominant nature, and his abuse towards his defector(s). I find it unfortunate that The Shape of Water kind of uses some of Pan's Labyrinth's elements as a bit of a crutch at times.
Overall though, I found The Shape of Water to be a very enjoyable film, and the best film I've seen in 2017, even if I didn't really see very many movies this year. I find it an interesting take on movie monster films, where instead of it being a horror film, it's a love story. I found the acting phenomenal, the story well executed, for the most part, and boasting beautiful visuals and cinematography. Even though the tone is a bit uneven at times and the borrowing of elements from one of del Toro's previous films does hurt the film a little bit, I still found this film to be heavily enjoyable and worth the watch. I look forward to what Guillermo del Toro has in store for us next.
Verdict: 8/10 (Glad I used my bathroom card right before Elisa and The Asset had sex. I didn't want to have that image burned into my mind).
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