In 1962, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a mute cleaning woman, taking care of her neighbor, a “starving artist” Giles (Richard Jenkins) who was forced into retirement and is trying to make his way back into the workforce, by drawing an ad for instant gelatin. Elisa works in a government lab where scientists are analyzing an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) from the Amazon jungle. Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) head of security, thinks he can extract the creature’s secrets by force. Scientist Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michel Stuhlberg) thinks the creature could yield great scientific benefits, but he is conflicted. After one of Strickland’s attacks on the creature, Elisa feels badly for the creature, and takes him a hard-boiled egg for lunch. The creature snaps at her, and then takes the egg. Depite the rocky beginning, the lunches become more frequent, and Elisa realizes that she’s falling in love with the creature, but Strickland and Hoffstetler may have other ideas for the Amphibian Man, can Elisa save him from further torture or worse?
At first glance, The Shape of Water is simply a science fiction movie with a monster and a damsel in distress, except this movie flips the script, and the damsel is the one doing the saving, and the monster is not the amphibian. If the viewer digs a little deeper there are all kinds of themes in this movie. Outcasts looking for happiness, the heartbreak of loneliness, the haves and have nots, the subjugation of women, the power of love, sometimes returned, sometimes unrequited, ageism, a celebration of classic film, all overlaid in a cold war settling where everyone spies on each other. The love story doesn’t work so well, because to be in love, there has to be communication, and other than a few words in sign language, Elisa doesn’t really communicate with the amphibian, and by making Elisa a mute, the film accidentally promotes a theme it’s trying to speak out against, the submissive female. The ending is a cop out, but there are so many themes covered in the script that it’s hard to say it’s a let-down.
The acting is superb, it made the story much better. Sally Hawkins was incredible, as Elisa, what made the role harder for her is she had to emote while having no dialogue. Somehow, she accomplished this with her eyes and very expressive face, and the urgency of her sign language. Richard Jenkins is also fantastic as Giles, he complains about getting older in public, but is hiding part of his identity in private, which makes the character complex and makes the performance nuanced. Michael Stuhlberg is also hiding part of his identity, and that makes his role more complex. Where do his loyalties lie? Stuhlberg keep the audience guessing. Octavia Spencer is also very good as Elisa’s co-worker, Zelda. She is especially intense when confronting her husband at a critical point in the film. Michael Shannon undoubtedly gives the best performance in the film, as Richard Strickland someone who has power, prestige and position, and uses all three to degrade and humiliate those below him, and aggrandize himself. He sees himself as a modern day Samson, on a mission from God to save society from the Philistines or bring down the temple. More like Ahab in the Bible or Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, Strickland’s obsession with the creature made him oblivious to everything else. Strickland’s black, moldering fingers, which are unsuccessfully reattached after a run in with the creature, are reflective of his black soul. Shannon plays Strickland as devoid of a shred of decency or humanity, yet he thinks of himself as a decent man. And Michael Shannon understood the contradiction, and played both sides, decent to those who mattered to him, reprehensible to those that didn’t. Shannon should have won the Oscar for Bes Supporting Actor, I saw Sam Rockwell in 3 Billboards, Shannon was better.
Guillermo Del Toro once again infuses this film with color, mostly green. The creature is green, the water he swims in is green, the bathroom walls are green, even the gelatin Giles puts in his ad is green. There are big, bold shots of an old movie theater where there The Story of Ruth is playing. There is one scene where Del Toro’s fondness for classic film gets the best of him, but The Shape of Water, like all his films is a visual treat. He gets excellent performances from his actors, and the pacing is good. Del Toro deserved the best director Oscar.
The Shape of Water: Dive in.
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