{"id":4930,"date":"2017-12-22T08:07:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T15:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4930"},"modified":"2017-12-22T08:07:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T15:07:39","slug":"review-the-shape-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4930","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE SHAPE OF WATER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"When a mute girl named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) encounters an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) while cleaning a laboratory, she\u2019s smitten. Her uncomfortable romantic interest in this strange wounded being runs deep, more than just a passing fetish. Emotions have power and that power must be explored.<\/p>\n

A wonderfully dark, adult fairy tale, director Guillermo del Toro (\u201cHellboy\u201d) ventures back to his best work namely 2006\u2019s perfect \u201cPan\u2019s Labyrinth\u201d delivering a true awards contender.<\/p>\n

The soon to be classic tale has a cleaning lady falling in love with an Amphibian Man. It\u2019s an interspecies love story, pure and simple. The fact that the producers had faith in del Toro, who wrote this film with \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d producer Vanessa Taylor, is really amazing. And the fact that del Toro and his game cast pulls it off so marvelously is equally impressive. \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d contains graphic, but impossibly beautiful imagery of two creatures expressing their love and affection for one another in the most physical way possible. In other words, there\u2019s forbidden sex here. But what could have been exploitive and lurid is nothing of the sort.<\/p>\n

Hawkins\u2019 work as Elisa should garner her a best actress nomination. Since her character is mute in the film, she relies on sign language to communicate. We saw this approach in the excellent \u201cWar for the Planet of the Apes\u201d earlier this year. But in addition to using her hands, the role requires Hawkins to use her entire body as she expresses her love for the aquatic\/terrestrial creature. It\u2019s a fearless performance.<\/p>\n

The familiar story elements contain a villain and Michael Shannon is well up to the task. He plays Richard Strickland, a no-nonsense military type leader who captured the Amphibian Man and brought him to the research facility to be poked and prodded. The paranoid and twisted Strickland is the product of then new Cold War concerns about growing Russian influence and spying.<\/p>\n

One of the doctors leading the examination of the creature is played by Michael Stuhlbarg, whose work in \u201cCall Me By Your Name\u201d might get some awards consideration. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer plays a fellow cleaner in the laboratory, who is one of Elisa\u2019s defenders.<\/p>\n

A subplot involves Elisa\u2019s sensitive neighbor, played by Richard Jenkins. He\u2019s a gay advertising artist, who is struggling to get back into the business that is beginning to abandon artistic renderings in favor of photographs. Jenkins is perfect in this important role, because he accepts Elisa\u2019s oddness and her desire to free the Amphibian Man from his prison with very little convincing.<\/p>\n

Finally, the film benefits greatly from Doug Jones\u2019 precise work as the Amphibian Man. While the character is partially the creation of computers, it is obvious that Jones is wearing an amazing suit of some sort and inhabiting the creature as only an actor with his experience can. Reminiscent of the Gill Man from \u201cCreature from the Black Lagoon,\u201d the Amphibian Man is part throw-back and part the product of modern techniques. Still, unlike the weightless CGI that made the villain in \u201cJustice League\u201d instantly forgettable, Jones\u2019 Amphibian Man looks real and that\u2019s because so much of what we are seeing is likely tangible and Jones in that amazing suit.<\/p>\n

A picture postcard in production design, del Toro\u2019s talents have never been better used. Where his last outing, \u201cCrimson Peak,\u201d certainly looked great, the story was ultimately a little dull. Here he pleases viewers by making the odd story accessible and somewhat familiar, while also preserving the adult elements that set his movies apart from typical mainstream fare. \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d was one of 2017\u2019s best films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adult fairy tale makes perfect use of del Toro\u2019s unique talents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4933,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions\/4933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}