What would you say if I told you that the best love story of the year followed the relationship between a merman and a mute woman? As crazy as it may sound, I believe that to be the truth, as Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is a fantastic movie.
This film is set during the cold war and features a mute janitor of a science facility that grows a strong relationship with one of the facilities assets, an amphibian man. While she wants to be with it, the higher ups in the facility have other, much less happy plans for their creature.
Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, the mute janitor that grows ever so fond of the amphibian man. The ability she has to bring emotion and depth to her character without speaking is a sight to behold. I think Hawkins is a shoe in for an academy award nomination because she is just fantastic in this role. The amphibian man is played brilliantly by del Toro regular Doug Jones. Some say that he is the Andy Serkis of creatures made with practical effects, and as usual he manages to turn in a great performance despite being buried under makeup. The main antagonist in the film is Michael Shannon as Richard Strickland, the man in charge of the creature and he is brilliant as always. I love Shannon as an actor, but he is absolutely despicable in this film and just gets more and more evil, just showing his talents in front of a camera. Hopefully coming in to another best supporting actress nomination is Octavia Spencer as Elisa's friend at the facility. Her performance perfectly captures the time and place of her character and she brings a lot to the table despite being in a smaller role. Richard Jenkins and Michael Stuhlbarg also have supporting roles, helping Elisa throughout and both bringing great work to the table. The casting department did a great job of doing what I love in casting, choosing known character actors. I love seeing actors I love fully commit themselves to characters and boy do you get a lot of it in this film.
While this cast is absolutely fantastic, the star of this film is Guillermo del Toro. While his latest films haven't been on par with his earlier work, he has re-cemented himself as one of the most creative storytellers the world has to offer. This story on paper is weird, but his script makes it all work fabulously, and his direction is fantastic. Just adding to that greatness is the fact that this is one of the most beautiful films of the year. As usual, the production design is incredibly creative and creates an aura that seems as though the audience were inside the film. The film also has a very strong green colour scheme, which I found makes the entire movie seem somewhat aquatic, and it made every shot pop somehow, despite the gloomy cold war setting the film takes place in. The score for this movie is also very beautiful. This film has a lot of science fiction and even some thrilling elements to it but the score is certain to remind you that at its heart this is a love story, and I think it words very effectively.
I can't gush about this movie enough. The more I think about it the more I love it, and while watching if there was ever a moment I didn't love, the purpose of each of those moments was shown and changed my tune. This is del Toro's best film since Pan's Labyrinth and easily one of my favourites of the year. The performances are incredible and the entire film is beautiful and I look forward to seeing it again and again in the future.
Rating: 5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
This film is set during the cold war and features a mute janitor of a science facility that grows a strong relationship with one of the facilities assets, an amphibian man. While she wants to be with it, the higher ups in the facility have other, much less happy plans for their creature.
Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, the mute janitor that grows ever so fond of the amphibian man. The ability she has to bring emotion and depth to her character without speaking is a sight to behold. I think Hawkins is a shoe in for an academy award nomination because she is just fantastic in this role. The amphibian man is played brilliantly by del Toro regular Doug Jones. Some say that he is the Andy Serkis of creatures made with practical effects, and as usual he manages to turn in a great performance despite being buried under makeup. The main antagonist in the film is Michael Shannon as Richard Strickland, the man in charge of the creature and he is brilliant as always. I love Shannon as an actor, but he is absolutely despicable in this film and just gets more and more evil, just showing his talents in front of a camera. Hopefully coming in to another best supporting actress nomination is Octavia Spencer as Elisa's friend at the facility. Her performance perfectly captures the time and place of her character and she brings a lot to the table despite being in a smaller role. Richard Jenkins and Michael Stuhlbarg also have supporting roles, helping Elisa throughout and both bringing great work to the table. The casting department did a great job of doing what I love in casting, choosing known character actors. I love seeing actors I love fully commit themselves to characters and boy do you get a lot of it in this film.
While this cast is absolutely fantastic, the star of this film is Guillermo del Toro. While his latest films haven't been on par with his earlier work, he has re-cemented himself as one of the most creative storytellers the world has to offer. This story on paper is weird, but his script makes it all work fabulously, and his direction is fantastic. Just adding to that greatness is the fact that this is one of the most beautiful films of the year. As usual, the production design is incredibly creative and creates an aura that seems as though the audience were inside the film. The film also has a very strong green colour scheme, which I found makes the entire movie seem somewhat aquatic, and it made every shot pop somehow, despite the gloomy cold war setting the film takes place in. The score for this movie is also very beautiful. This film has a lot of science fiction and even some thrilling elements to it but the score is certain to remind you that at its heart this is a love story, and I think it words very effectively.
I can't gush about this movie enough. The more I think about it the more I love it, and while watching if there was ever a moment I didn't love, the purpose of each of those moments was shown and changed my tune. This is del Toro's best film since Pan's Labyrinth and easily one of my favourites of the year. The performances are incredible and the entire film is beautiful and I look forward to seeing it again and again in the future.
Rating: 5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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