Rarely does a film grab me from the very first frame, pulling me into a world of imagination and wonder and offering up a compelling, fascinating and peculiar story, but that’s exactly the experience of watching the brilliant film ‘The Shape of Water.’ It’s best described by the word phantasmagorical. It’s a love story between a lonely cleaner at a creepy Cold War research facility and a creature from the Amazonian jungles, but there are so many levels to this film that you could easily pick out a half dozen other storylines to focus upon too.
Set in the early 1960s during the height of the anti-commie Cold War, ‘The Shape of Water’ revolves around the life and imagination of lonely facilities cleaner Elisa (Sally Hawkins). Elisa and her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) who are responsible for keeping a classified military research facility clean and tidy. Heading up a particularly secretive research project is Strickland (Michael Shannon), who will do whatever it takes to ensure that the Americans win and the Commies lose.
When Elisa learns that the latest research project is a creature from the Amazon, she finds a kindred spirit. It’s not just an animal, though, it’s a male humanoid and he’s trapped in the facility and subject to cruel experiments by Strickland and his crew. When Elisa learns that something particularly dire is going to happen to the amphibious man, she knows what she has to do: Kidnap him and deliver him to safety, even if she risks imprisonment or worse. After all, love knows no bounds.
Zelda is pulled into the scheme, as is Elisa’s delightful older neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), another lonelyheart who seeks a man with whom to share his bachelor existence. But what can they do against Strickland and the surveillance and military guards that keep a close watch on the facility day and night?
There’s an exciting thriller aspect to ‘The Shape of Water,’ but director Guillermo del Toro never loses sight of its heart either, nor its fantasy elements. The entire production from the gorgeous and entrancing opening scene to the last frame is stunningly assembled, a level of lush production that is too rare in movies (the most recent example I can think of is the equally ‘Hugo,’ which won Oscars for cinematography, visual effects and art direction).
The performances are also delightful, with each character imbued with a fascinating quirk or two, from Strickland’s addiction to hard candies to Zelda’s constant bickering with her do-nothing husband, to Giles and his artistic creations depicting the idealized American nuclear family from his lonely bachelor pad. Sally Hawkins (Elisa) delivers a note-perfect performance as a lonely mute who’s waited all her life for someone to love, seeing people for who they are, not how they appear.
All in all, ‘The Shape of Water’ is on my list for best – and certainly most interesting – films of the year. Go see it, and be prepared for some good, old fashioned, and yes, slightly weird storytelling and a reminder of just how amazing good cinema can be. Strongly recommended.
