Artists have always looked at water as a symbol of love. While this has become a well known cliche, it is an apt comparison. Love flows like an ocean all around us. It is indiscriminate and does not care for ethnicity, sexual orientation, or social status. We try to control it, bend it to our will, but in the end we only truly attain love when we let the current take us. Whether it’s the classic romantic connection between two lovers or the love between old friends, true love is something everyone wants.
Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water brilliantly captures this feeling. An emotionally powerful performance from Sally Hawkins, Del Toro’s familiar but Gothic vision of 1960’s Baltimore, and a beautiful soundtrack create a cinematic fairy tale about finding true love in what may seem like unusual places. But the outsiders of Del Toro’s not so twisted love story show us that there is no such thing as an unusual place to find love.
“Unable to Perceive the Shape of You, I Find You All Around Me…”
Rendered mute by injuries to her throat as a child, Elisa Esposito (Hawkins) works as a janitor at a research facility in 1960s Baltimore. Her only friends are fellow societal outcasts Zelda (Octavia Spencer), her fellow janitor, and Giles (Richard Jenkins), an artist looking for validation at work and in his personal life. While Elisa is relatively happy, she dreams of something more. When an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) is brought to the research facility, she finds herself drawn to the mysterious creature. The two form a powerful emotional bond and she works to free him from the clutches of a sociopath government agent named Strickland (Michael Shannon).
The Shape of Water is very much a fairy tale. Del Toro and co-writer Vanessa Taylor craft a script with monsters, a lost princess, but most importantly, a story of true love at the center. The narrative does not hold many surprises with its love story, but the film’s heart lies in its complete embrace of the idea of love. A fairy tale is the perfect setting for this, but it also does different things with that narrative.
While the film embraces the traits of the classic fairy tale, it also subverts them, putting “outsiders” in the main roles. Our heroes are supposedly helpless (Elisa’s inability to speak), people of color (Zelda) and homosexual (Giles). It is an empowering choice and makes the story all the more sympathetic. This is a story for everyone who has ever felt like they didn’t quite belong or were ostracized for the wrong reasons.
What truly makes the film work is the real emotion at its center. Sally Hawkins’ performance is the catalyst of that emotional core. Her subtle and mostly silent turn as Elisa is incredibly powerful. She conveys so much with just one look or gesture, making you feel her melancholy, desperation and joy.
Many will be turned off by reading a simple synopsis of the film. A love story between a creature and a woman?!? But Hawkins’ subtle performance combined with Doug Jones turn as the “monster” make it work. They are simply two outsiders who find each other. Any doubts about their relationship quickly disappear.
Jones’ Amphibian Man is also masterfully performed by the famous creature actor. Many take roles like this for granted, but much like Hawkins, Jones speaks through movement. He somehow combines the creature’s “monstrous” traits with a real humanity, more so than the real monster at the center of the film.
Michael Shannon’s Agent Strickland is a cold monster. This is not a spoiler of any kind…much like any Shannon role, the moment his character walks on screen, he projects menace. The God faring, morally superior Strickland is toxic masculinity at its worst. The character looks to impose his own superiority on the world, whether it be destroying the Amphibian Man or simply destroying the will of the “lesser” people around him. Shannon is his usual intimidating self in the role, as you anticipate the worst nearly every time he comes on screen.
Octavia Spencer is fun as Zelda, creating many of the laughs in the film. But don’t dismiss her as comic relief as she plays an important role late in the film. Richard Jenkins’ Giles does most of the talking, but carries a powerful arc about accepting what he has rather than trying to attain a lost past. Michael Stuhlbarg has an intriguing role as scientist Robert Hoffstetler, but feels slightly wasted as his story line becomes a simple plot device. Despite that, he rounds out the stellar supporting cast in this wonderfully strange Del Toro creation.
“Your Presence Fills My Eyes With Your Love…”
Guillermo Del Toro’s eye for fantastic but familiar worlds is in full bloom in The Shape of Water. Cold War era Baltimore looks familiar, but Del Toro adds a dark, Gothic feel. It not only gives the film a touch of horror to play up the presence of a “monster,” but it also gives the world a fantastic feel. It’s based in a real world, but the impossible is possible.
Del Toro and cinematographer Dan Laustsen weave the camera like a graceful dancer throughout Elisa’s apartment early in the film, mirroring her love of dance. At the same time, they know when to keep the camera still at key times. They build up tension with multiple close ups of Strickland. They stay in the shadows to build up Hoffstetler and his mysterious motives. And they know exactly how to film their “monster.”
The look of the Amphibian Man is important as well. Del Toro wisely keeps him hidden, the fleeting looks evoking the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Is this really a monster from our worst nightmares? It plays brilliantly with our expectations.
But when more of the Amphibian is revealed, we see a living being. He has compassionate eyes, more so than most humans we meet in the film. He is animalistic, but also graceful and naturally kind. The audience feels for the supposed monster of the film, and his design plays a large part in that.
Composer Alexandre Desplat does a magnificent job creating an evocative soundtrack. He skillfully incorporates classic “Old Standards” like You’ll Never Know into character themes. There is a hopeful tone punching through the often bittersweet soundtrack.
There are some fantasy scenes that are jarring, but those moments fit into our characters’ longing dreams. Not everyone will like these moments, as they can be unintentionally comedic, but this is a minor criticism.
“It Humbles My Heart, For You Are Everywhere.”
The Shape of Water not only features outsiders finding love, but it also shows them fighting for it. As stated above, love embraces us when we realize it is there and let it sweep us away. Elisa’s journey is an admirable one. She finds it and despite the fear and danger, she fights for it despite the world around her screaming that it is not possible. Is it a fairy tale to want love no matter the cost? Maybe…maybe not.
But this film does something incredibly empowering: It embraces love.
SCORE: 10 OUT OF 10