Movie: The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water:  a Guillermo del Toro film.  As with most del Toro films, you will either hate the film or be pleasantly astonished.  As a del Toro fan, this fantastical love story truly impressed me.  My outline fails to provide an adequate description of what occurs during this 123-minute film, but this is due to my limitations and not to what del Toro, the co-author and director, has created.  The story takes place in Baltimore 1962.  The racism, sexism and class imbalance that existed in 1962 is clearly presented.  Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), the protagonist, is a mute janitor working at a high security federal government facility.  Her co-worker, friend and sign language interpreter is Zelda (Octavia Spencer).  The facility is deeply involved in the Space Race.  Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon), the facility’s head of security, brings to the facility a humanoid amphibious creature (Doug Jones) that he captured in the Amazon River.  The intention is to study the creature in the hopes of expediting man’s ability to travel in space.  The Russians are aware of the creature and have planted a spy at the facility, Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg).  The fifth major character in this film, is Giles (Richard Jenkins), Elisa’s neighbor, a recovering alcoholic who loves watching 1930’s dance movies.  Over time, Elisa and the creature form a close bond and a uniquely interesting story develops.  With the help of Zelda and Dr. Hoffstetler, Elisa develops a plan to save the creature from the agency’s exploitive and killing clutches.  The antagonist, Colonel Strickland, is portrayed as a violent misogynist, and the few shots of his home life show stiflingly idyllic scenes reminiscent of Father Knows Best; the film is laced with references to old movies and TV shows.  Despite the fact that some of the characters are one dimensional stereotypes, this movie really works.  You come to sincerely care for the creature, and the love story between the creature and Elisa feels genuine.  Hawkins’ performance is a significant reason why this film succeeds.  There are a small number of directors whose work I always try to see; Guillermo del Toro is definitely on this short list.  Despite the rather odd storyline, experiencing The Shape of Water was a real pleasure.  I highly recommend this movie.