The Shape of Water (2017)- BFI London Film Festival 2017

Review

123min

Genre:       Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Director:    Guillermo del Toro

Cast:         Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer…and more

Writers:     Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor

-Synopsis-

A ‘Beauty & the Beast’ style fairy-tale about oppression and boundless love set at the height of cold war paranoia in the early 1960’s, when a mute cleaner at a top secret US government lab develops a deep bond with their latest experiment—a fantastical water-dwelling creature.

A lifelong devotee to horror, fantasy and genre filmmaking, Guillermo del Toro has spent thirty years scaring and delighting audiences with a blend of vivid visuals, compelling stories and captivating characters which transcends his B-movie roots—taking full advantage of his skills as an artist and his early work with makeup and effects. Now the Mexican writer/director climbs to the highest wrung of the Hollywood ladder, combining his unique talents with period drama and classic romance to create an unlikely and socially conscious concoction which defies classification, capturing the imagination of audiences and the awards season alike.

Sally Hawkins stars as demure mute custodian ‘Elisa’, mopping the floors of a secret government research facility alongside her feisty fellow cleaner and interpreter  ‘Zelda’ (Octavia Spencer), and sharing a humble life with sensitive middle-aged neighbour ‘Giles’ (Richard Jenkins). But when Elisa begins to develop a relationship with the lab’s latest test subject—a humanoid amphibian creature with special abilities (Doug Jones)—all their lives are turned upside down as humanistic intentions begin to clash with the world surrounding them and with ‘Strickland’ (Michael Shannon), the facility’s icy and fearsome security chief.

‘The Shape of Water’ is essentially genre mashup at its best and most refined, benefitting from the guidance of Fox Searchlight and the masterful eye of its director to make for a period creature-feature combined with realist fairy-tale, mixed with a tender romance and a cold war thriller—all wrapped up in a package that is essentially a good ole’ fashioned ode to the power and beauty of love . . . in all its many forms.

Del Toro and co-writer Vanessa Taylor manage to add yet another element to this unique cinematic potpourri by weaving socially conscious themes of sexism, discrimination and racism into the narrative, not only reflecting the social and political turmoil of the time in recent American history in which the film is set, but also proving painfully timely—whether intentionally or not—especially given the current state of American politics and a divided society with a renewed callousness.

Another thing which separates ‘The Shape of Water’ from anything you might compare it with, or indeed the director’s previous work, is the mix of tones and the fluctuations in mood throughout the film. This is often a funny and whimsical piece and at times a tender and even sweet drama, always however staying on the right side of saccharine melodrama. Yet it’s equally dark and gritty, even featuring unexpected nudity and sexuality at times, and the odd bit of graphic and gruesome violence to remind us of the writer/director’s roots—all of which makes this very much an adult fairy-tale which is well grounded in reality.

What will certainly be familiar to Guillermo del Toro fans though is the quality of craftsmanship applied to the visuals and the sounds, which make expert use of a relatively modest budget. The director reunites with his ‘Crimson Peak’ and ‘Mimic’ cinematographer Dan Laustsen to create yet another combination of beautiful visuals, featuring top notch concept art, production designs, practical effects and costumes, vividly and stylishly bringing to life a polished early 1960s urban ‘Americana’. The film’s style and personality is rounded off by yet another colourful and distinctive score from Alexandre Desplat, seamlessly combining the whimsical and melancholy while using the sounds of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ to great effect.

All the film’s quirks and qualities are there though to serve the story and the performances from an accomplished cast, beautifully led by the always nuanced and empathetic Sally Hawkings without uttering a single word, a performance worthy of more recognition than awards season has provided thus far. She’s supported by the dependably excellent Octavia Spencer and the expertly intense and menacing Michael Shannon, as well as arguably the real human heart of the piece Richard Jenkins—and of course long time Del Toro collaborator Doug Jones, whose physicality and grace bring humanity to something which could have easily come off like ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’s’ more elegant cousin.

For all its merits though ‘The Shape of Water’ is not Guillermo del Toro’s finest work to date, that distinction in our opinion goes to the brilliant and truly unique ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and perhaps even his equally distinctive 1993 debut ‘Cronos’—and his latest is not without issues either, featuring an overly familiar escape paradigm in the third act which doesn’t quite do justice to what comes before. Yet the Mexican auteur manages to strike a fine balance between tenderness and grit, whimsy and darkness, grounding his concoction in cold hard reality but maintaining a measure of hope and a magical quality—all of which deserves the recognition the film has already garnered and justifies its position as an Oscar frontrunner this year . . . on several fronts.

The Bottom Line…

A unique and delightful blend of tones and genres with the fingerprints of a century of cinema, ‘The Shape of Water’ is an immaculately crafted, captivating and socially conscious if slightly bizarre ode to love and friendship, enchanting audiences and critics alike while broadening Guillermo del Toro’s appeal and raising his Hollywood star to new levels.

‘The Shape of Water’ is out now in UK and US cinemas.

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