"Magical" is a word often bandied about when describing films that trade in the fantastical, and although I’d normally avoid using it, with its underlying connotations of saccharine audience manipulation and forced sentimentality, I’ve no hesitation in ascribing it to Guillermo del Toro’s rather marvellous and not-schmaltzy-at-all The Shape of Water.
The premise sounds ridiculous on paper, but it works like a charm. It’s a Cold War fairy tale/fable in which the mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins in one of the most impressive lead performances I’ve seen in a long time), a cleaner at a secretive government research facility, falls head over heels for a captured sea monster (if it helps, think Creature From the Black Lagoon meets Amelie).
Del Toro is a hugely talented fantasy film-maker (and a true gentleman to boot so I’m told), and as a piece of directing this is a tour de force. Visually, it’s a near-masterpiece, its love for old-school Hollywood melodrama and kitschy 1950s sci-fi being the most obvious of its numerous cinematic allusions (a break-out dance sequence that plays like a Depression-era musical number is an immediate classic if you’re that way inclined).
If I have any complaints it’s that it’s slightly too long, losing momentum at a few crucial points in the running time, and while the acting is across-the-board faultless, there are some unnecessary subplots that could have been either removed completely or explored in more depth. As it is, it’s four-fifths of a great movie, and sometimes that’s enough.
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer
Rating: (R16)
★★★★ (out of five)
Reviewed by Jeremy Quinn
THE SHAPE OF WATER
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer
Rating: (R16)
★★★★ (out of five)
