The Shape of Water, is a movie that I chanced upon. I do not keep a track of the latest and the best movies released, I just happened to be browsing on the Youtube for a movie adaption of a book when I came across the trailer of ‘The Shape of Water’. The trailer showed flashes of the scenes depicting a mute princesses, an ugly but loveable creature, lyrical flow of H2O and Octavia Spencer, I was sold. I spent the next few minutes finding out if the movie had released and a free weekend to indulge in it.
Title: The Shape of Water
Rating: 8/10
Genre: Drama, fantasy
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
The 123 minutes saga set in the cold war era, of the mute princesses is something I can go back for, yes I repeat good movies. The story is a fantasy drama which oozed the feel of ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’ because of the era it is set in, but it is more artsy and more bold. There is a wilful placement of objects which made every scene look like a vintage portrait, like when the protagonist Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is getting ready of work, she is brushing her shoes with a peacock shaped brush set against a dull bottle green wall. Elisa is mute but she expresses in strong honesty and supports her neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins) in his endeavour to get back his job, she humours him when he has the same distasteful green jello cake everyday just because Giles likes the bus boy from the Diner. You see she does not judge her friend, just as as she wants the world to see only her and not her muteness or that she works as a janitor, but the world does not work like that.
The world is more crowded with people like Richard Strickland (Micheal Shannon) who captures this majestic creature, the Amphibian man (Doug Jones), only to mutilate it, who treat people as per their social status and wants to live the American dream just because that is being advertised. As you might have gotten the idea, the film is about an exotic South American creature being captured only to be tested upon for cynical purposes of preparing for war and we have this mere mute janitor working in that facility falling in love with it, with him? Like I said, bold. The movie is bold yet quaint and tasteful about displaying nudity and experiencing physical contact between different species. The adorable two fall in love with each other because they see just each others souls, she does not see his scales and he does not care for her muteness. There is melodrama and some bit of action of course when the ancillary characters like Giles, Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer) willingly and unwillingly become party to rescue mission of the Amphibian man. Are they successful in uniting them? well, you will have to sit at the edge of your seat in a theatre to find out and you will not be disappointed, but you want the theatre experience, trust me, the cinematography is mesmerising. Guillermo del Toro, you rock!
