Guillermo Del Toro’s new film is a classy fairy tale
If you ask your friends to tell you what The Shape of Water is about, the answer could probably be: “A love story between an amphibious monster and a mute girl”. It doesn’t sound like the plot that makes run to the cinema, but here are some reasons to give it a try: the film is written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, it won the Golden Lion at the 74th Venice Film Festival and now it’s running for 13 Oscars.
Set in the early 60s, The Shape of Water is the story of a mute woman, Elisa, who falls in love with a humanoid-amphibious creature, captured in South America and kept prisoner in an underground lab. Elisa, played by Sally Hawkins, works at the facility as a cleaner and when she finds out that the creature (Doug Jones) is set to be a test subject for experiments she strives to let him out. It can’t be an easy mission, obviously: Elisa has to battle against Colonel Richard Strickland (the man who captured the creature) and his evil squad, hoping in some help from her friends Zelda and Giles and an upstanding researcher, Dr. Robert Hoffstetler.
The Shape of Water is a perfectly balanced work of art: it’s the sweet and entertaining love story you didn’t expect from Guillermo Del Toro. If you loved Pan’s Labyrinth be prepared to watch something better: here CGI and old school cinema work wonders and the director skillfully blends horror, realism and romance to deliver a delightful, multisensory experience.
The most obvious inspiration for the film is the 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon by Jack Arnold, but The Shape of Water owes something also to Ron Howard’s Splash and maybe to Steven Spielberg’s ET. However, there’s nothing childish in this film: this is an elegant tale for adults, which explores diversity, love, sexual maturity and friendship. And there are also ethical overtones: the film is set in the Cold War era, imbued with frenzy, discrimination and homophobia, an historical moment that is not far from the one we’re living right now.
The actors offer their talent to an already well written and shot film: Sally Hawkins and Richard Jenkins are both (deservedly) running for an Oscar; Michael Shannon and Octavia Spencer are also giving two memorable performances: the first plays Strickland, a tireless villain who’s trying to live the typical American life, the second plays Zelda, the funny and thoughtful counterpart to Elisa’s rashness.
The Shape of Water hit european cinemas on February 14, so get ready to cheer smile and shed some tears: this film is a classy fairy tale and it’s, literally, Guillermo Del Toro at his best.
