Guillermo's films ("Pan's Labyrinth" as his most famous up until now) seem to explore "modern" fairy tales through a darker lens. We have heroes and villains, princes and princesses, monsters and duels. I think the appeal of a director like this is his unique take on visuals and design, and we surely can recognize any film helmed by him simply by the recognition of strong makeup and a tendency towards graphic violence. For "The Shape of Water," I appreciated this twist on a love story, set amidst 1960's Baltimore, but the film slowly begins to lose footing as it adds more drama and seeks to take greater risks.
Essentially we follow Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute woman who works as housekeeping in a top secret government agency. She works the night shift and falls into a familiar pattern of sleeping during the day, boiling eggs for "breakfast," taking a bath, and then taking a bus trip to work. She has friends who speak on her behalf: Zelda, a fellow maid (Octavia Spencer) and Giles, her gay neighbor with a flair for graphic design (Richard Jenkins). Our script rarely takes time to appreciate the fact that our heroine is voiceless, and thus we have simple silent moments filled with narration by these two to help explain plot and story points.
Essentially what happens is that Elisa meets "the asset;" a government-acquired aquatic monster that was captures somewhere in South America. It's basically the creature from the black lagoon with a few minor changes. What they see as a monster, Elisa sees as someone like her: mute, misunderstood, alone... She spends much of her time in the lab getting to know the thing, and little by little we are led to believe that they form some kind of mutual understanding. Our villain is Strickland (Michael Shannon), a vile contract worker who abuses the creature and hopes to cut it up to study its inner workings (as most villains do). Elisa works to hatch a plan to save the creature and set it free.
It's a story we have seen a million times before but rarely with this much craft put into it. I think we can almost lock up the Oscar for Art Direction with this film - it's honestly that good. There are a lot of films that this story reminded me of but none more than "Amelie," that charming french romance that used color, music, and sound to create another world. In fact, the first 20 minutes or so are so blatantly copied from that 2001 film that I wondered whether or not Elisa was going to break into Strickland's house to change his toothpaste for his foot cream.
The trailer shows you a lot about the look of this movie, but we are unprepared for the intensity of the 'romance' between girl and fish. I can appreciate the way Elisa begins to see the monster as an equal, but we are meant to believe that a lot of things are happening here, maybe a bit more than is comfortable. The creature is definitely man-like with defined features and two legs, but the sexual nature that grows between the two is something that went over my head. Maybe others will see it differently, I don't know. We never understand the creature as anything other than a misunderstood being that was kidnapped from another world. Adding sexuality to the mix just left things feeling a little out of place.
The ending is as you would expect from Guillermo del Toro, and in fact you may find many more similarities to "Pan's Labyrinth" than you might initially think. A couple things are very good here: the visuals, the makeup, Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer (a scene-stealer in every sense, although she seems to be typecast as a maid more often than is necessary), Michael Shannon, and an unexpected score from Alexandre Desplat. I don't think this is the best movie of the year, although critics certainly seem to think so. It all feels a bit forced, to be honest. That Elisa lives above a movie theater, that her and Giles will know choreographed tap dance numbers out of a hat, that everything follows such a predictable arch and then ends with a pretty bow on top. There's nothing bad with formula. I only wish "Shape of Water" could have been a bit more fluid with its creative license.
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