Mexican director Guillermo del Toro
tells fairy tales for adults. His credits include 2004's excellent
"Hellboy" and 2006's "Pan's Labyrinth", which is a truly
beautiful and creepy tale. He has had a few mis-steps (cough-cough-
"Pacific Rim"), but fortunately, “The Shape of Water” is not
one of these.
Set in the cold-war 1950s, the film
tells the tale of Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaning lady in a
secret, government lab. She lives a quiet, regimented life, with her
only friends being her gay next-door-neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins)
and her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer). One day, Elisa's ordered
world is turned upside down by the new “asset” brought into the
lab. It's a humanoid water-creature (who looks somewhat similar to
the fish-man from “Hellboy.”) The scientists and government
agents treat the creature like a beast, but Elisa intuits that he has
a soul, and soon she is sharing snacks and music with him. Next
thing you know, the two have fallen in love, and Elisa recruits her
two friends to help him escape.
You have to remember with this movie
that it's a fairytale. Let yourself get taken along for the ride,
and don't judge the story literally. Enjoy the striking color palate
and the beautiful love story. Ignore the somewhat broadly-drawn
nature of the characters and just savor what is truly the date-movie
of the year.
4 stars out of 5
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