'The Shape Of Water' A Review

The Shape Of Water is a fantasy/romance/creature-feature about Elisa(Sally Hawkins) a mute janitor at a government facility in the early 50's. While cleaning one of the labs in the facility Elisa and her friend Zelda(Octavia Spencer) witness the arrival of a new experiment/prisoner, a mysterious aquatic humanoid. After a bloody incident where Col. Strickland(Michael Shannon) gets two fingers bitten off Elisa gets some time alone with the creature and begins a casual friendship which slowly develops into a romance.

Hawkins gives a solid, unwavering, performance more inquisitive rather than emotional but still effecting. Spencer is as watchable as ever and provides some reality bonafides the film needs to avoid potential absurd pitfalls although should doesn't get much to really sink her teeth into. Richard Jenkins as Elisa's closeted friend and neighbor Giles plays it a bit big even for a film with a fish man but overall he's fine. Shannon is always compelling but he's not asked to do much we haven't already seen him do, although his arc in this film is more of a slow burn rather than his typical manic crescendos.

Visually the film is stunning, no surprise from del Toro, and although a tad shaky The Shape of Water is narratively on much firmer ground than his previous, 2015's Crimson Peak. Ultimately the film is a nostalgia piece, a throwback to golden age Hollywood musicals and love stories with some incredibly brazen and bizarre twists. There is nothing transcendent about the film, nothing terribly surprising, but it is fun and holds the interest and is beautiful to look at with one very good and very classic Michael-Shannon-recounting-a-bible-story monologue.

See It.