My love for Guillermo del Toro had waned. Blinded by the lush visual experience of Crimson Peak, I failed to recognize its shortcomings in storytelling and weaknesses as a horror movie, until I watched it again. His best films, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, display del Toro’s unique ability to create visually stunning adult fairy tales. At his peak, his films explore the collision of childlike magic and wonder with the devastating and often deadly brutality of adult affairs. Framing this tragic collision in the cinematic equivalent of an exquisite coloring book allows the whimsy to win out over the despair, and keeps us coming back for more. With the Hellboy movies and Pacific Rim, del Toro also proved he can do comic book fun, but at his worst we get a beautiful and boring PG-13 horror film.
The Shape of Water, a Beauty and the Beast-meets-The Creature from the Black Lagoon love story, is Guillermo del Toro doing what he does best, for better or worse. Like his previously mentioned best films, The Shape of Water takes place during the mid-twentieth century amidst hostilities between two countries, in this case the U.S. and Russia. Set against picturesque antique cars, clocks and curios, Elisa (Sally Hawkins) and Zelda (Octavia Spencer) are cleaning ladies at a secret government facility where a stern and sadistic federal agent (Shannon) and a team of scientists wheel in a water tank with an aquatic oddity inside. Elisa, who has been mute since childhood, spends her days listening to Zelda crack wise about her home life and taking care of her elderly artist neighbor Giles (Jenkins). Once she forms a bond with the captive aquaman, it is a bond beyond what her friendship with Zelda and Giles provides, and she finds herself falling in love.
Love stories between a human and human-like beast are not unprecedented—I mentioned a classic one (from Disney, no less) earlier—but it is del Toro’s sheer singularity of directorial vision that keeps this tale from becoming Free Willy: An Extremely Awkward Love Story. The performances are excellent throughout. The script (written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor) is humorous, heartbreaking and horrifying in all the right ways. The score is light and nostalgic. And the set design is awash in a brilliant bouquet of teal, seafoam green and aquamarine.
The Shape of Water is quite beautiful, a bit odd, anything but boring, and one of del Toro’s best.
