By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, Lauren Lee Smith, Nick Searcy, David Hewlett and Michael Shannon.
Rating: Excellent.
Mexican filmmaker and Academy Award Nominee Guillermo Del Toro, brings “The Shape of Water” a tale of fantasy with a powerful message that blew me away.
The movie takes place in Baltimore, Maryland in 1960 and tells the story of Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) a mute janitor who works in a secret research facility with her closest friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer).
Elisa dreams constantly in her Prince Charming and has a very close relationship with her friend and neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkings) who she spends most of her time with after work.
One day in her break, Elisa will see an aquatic creature refered as The Asset (Doug Jones) and her life will change forever.
She forms a special connection with The Assett and wants to set him free but the evil and cruel Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) has other plans.
Now Elisa will seek the help of her friends Zelda and Giles to set the creature free before he is history.
Again Guillermo Del Toro directed a colorful film filled with impressive visual effects and you can tell this film has Del Toro´s touch.
The screenplay also written by Del Toro, who joined forces with Vanessa Taylor, who is well known for episodes of the acclaimed TV Series “Game of Thrones” crafted an original and magnificent script filled with rich and unique characters.
Del Toro brought a different story that we are used to see from him and it is more than a Science Fiction film . In fact I feel that is a compelling love story of two characters that have a lot of similarites but at the same time they are different. I loved the fact that the film is told from Elisa`s point of view and as members of an audience Del Toro took us to that incredible journey.
I saw a lot of influence in movie like “Creature of The Black Lagoon” from 1954 and Steven Spielberg´s “E.T the Extraterrestial” from 1982 due to the relationship of a human being with a creature.
Again I saw one of Guillermo Del Toro`s seals in this film which is that he shows in every single one of his characters the vulnerable side of them, specially in the character of Elisa played marvelously by Sally Hawkins.
Dan Lausten, who worked with Guillermo Del Toro in 2015`s “Crimson Peak” shot a beautiful film. The use of colors and contrasts were visually impressive and I would not be surprised if we see an Academy Award Nomination for his work.
The score by Academy Award Winning Composer Alexandre Desplat again made a masterpiece.
Not only “The Shape of Water” is a movie that visually engaging but the score is as well.
Besides Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins gave an incredible performance and I would not be surprised on seeing this two being nominated for Academy Awards as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Octavia Spencer was amazing as always, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones.
The only performance that I was not a big fan was Michael Shannon`s. He is one of the most versatile actors in this day. I was expecting more of his performance and I felt that he was overacted in this role. At the same time I understood why he was like that but I felt that he could have gone in another direction and make his character more real.
The third act of the film is very well shot, touching and has a brilliant ending. Just a word of advice bring a pack of tissues since you will need them for this movie.
I´m sure that “The Shape of Water” not only will be a film that will score Academy Award Nominations but it will be a film that people will be talking about it for a very long time.
“The Shape of Water” is one of my favorite movies of this year and I highly recommend it for Del Toro`s directing, writing, performances, visuals and score.