Film Review - The Shape of Water (2018)

The Shape of Water is directed by Guillermo Del Toro and takes place in Cold War America where a mute cleaning lady named Eliza (Sally Hawkins) comes across a Fish monster (Doug Jones) who is said to be worshipped like a God in South America, the two then spark an unlikely romance much to the chagrin of the Federal Agent (Michael Shannon) who is keen to keep the creature out of Russian hands and study it for his own purposes.

I am of 2 minds on this movie which would make it a mixed reaction first off GDT once again shows with an extraordinary world builder he can be every set in this movie be it the Government facility or the apartments above a cinema where Eliza and her friend played by Richard Jenkins live which is full of things like an old TV to artists drawing boards to even the posters in the locker rooms there is a lot of visual details big and small that makes this movie as well as films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim so worthwhile to watch.

And also the performances by Hawkins, Jones and Shannon are all top notch Ms Hawkins first off is really really good even though she has no lines of dialogue at all she only communicates through sign language as if she was dear Jones also does a lot with only his body moments (he also appeared in Pan’s Labyrinth as the Goat type creature) and he too is very good and Mr Shannon is a great foil for the 2 of them the Gaston in this Beauty and the Beast esque story.

Unfortunately outside of them the rest of the film did very little for me and that is sadly down to the screenplay by Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor every time the other characters open their mouths and start talking I almost immediately wanted them to shut up as I was loving just the quiet talkless scenes with Jones and Hawkins they said so much with just their body language and gestures that I didn’t need endless scenes of dialogue to be given to me Christopher Nolan did this beautifully with Dunkirk he only let his characters speak when they needed to say something and he let the visuals and the music and the sound and the body gestures of his actors do the rest whereas here Del Toro has too many scenes of people talking and as a result it undermines somewhat the romantic wordless feel of his love story.

And so that was the Shape of Water which has great performances and visuals but its script has too many talking scenes that undercut the wordless lyrical quality of its central love story, 2 and a half out of 5.