The Shape of Water, Review: Half full, half empty

It’s co-written and directed Guillermo del Toro. And here is an excerpt of the synopsis: In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment. Sounds interesting? Yes. Premise can work on its own? As a sci-fi thriller, yes, but as an allegory and metaphor-packed Guillermo del Toro mosaic, not too well. At the 74th Venice International Film Festival, The Shape of Water took home the Golden Lion for best film. I raise my glass to it, and then hurriedly put it down, back on my table. They were toasting on champagne, I swirled my water.

Somebody used eight words to describe the film in a nutshell: An inverted take on Beauty and the Beast. Elsewhere, it was defined as “an otherworldly fable set against the backdrop of Cold War era America, circa 1962.” Both are bang on.

Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), found as a child with mysterious scars on her neck, is mute, a plain Jane, and communicates using sign language. Living alone in an apartment above a movie theatre, she works as a janitor at a secret government laboratory, during the Cold War, in 1962. Her only two friends are her next door neighbour, Giles (Richard Jenkins), a struggling, gay advertisement illustrator, and her co-worker, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), an African-American woman, who also serves as her interpreter at work.

The facility receives a creature in a tank, which has been captured from a South American river by Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), a veteran of a South East Asian war. Curious, Elisa discovers that the creature is a humanoid amphibian (Doug Jones), and begins visiting the creature in secret, forming a close bond with it. Though he cannot speak, just as she cannot, he makes strange gurgling, creaking, crackling, staccato, static sounds. Seeking to exploit the creature for possible advantages in the Space Race, General Frank Hoyt (Nick Searcy) orders Strickland to vivisect it and inspect it internally.

One scientist, Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), who is secretly a Soviet spy, pleads unsuccessfully to keep the creature alive, for further study, and, at the same time, is ordered by his Soviet spymasters to ‘euthanise’ the creature. Elisa learns what the Americans' plan is for the creature, and she convinces Giles to help free him. Hoffstetler discovers Elisa's plot, and, after some moral and legal compunctions, and chooses to help her. Zelda becomes involved as the escape becomes successful.

In an interview with IndieWire about the film, del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, Pacific Rim Mexican) said, "This movie is a healing movie for me. ... For nine movies, I rephrased the fears of my childhood, the dreams of my childhood, and this is the first time I speak as an adult, about something that worries me as an adult. I speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we're going. These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven." If that is not a confused statement, which translates as a confused film, I am an amphibian!

Three other writers have contributed to the ultimate product: Vanessa Taylor, Sally Hawkins and Daniel Kraus. Del Toro began working on the script in 2012, after buying the idea from Daniel Kraus. Taylor had written two produced films, Hope Springs and Divergent, but del Toro was a bigger fan of her past contributions to Game of Thrones, where she earned Emmy nominations as a producer during seasons two and three. And Hawkins? Sally Hawkins had already thought of a character who was unaware that she was a mermaid, and several of those beats ultimately helped flesh out Elisa's arc and the way in which she treated her love affair with the creature. In her story, there are scars on the side of Eliza's neck, representing gills, and saltwater is used to keep the creature in a bathtub.

Meanwhile, here is what del Toro tries to cram into 123 minutes. A mute who was found as a baby near water (Moses?) who can hear and use sign language (Moses used to stammer). No more back story. A colleague/friend who dotes on her and has learnt sign language just for her. As has her gay, heart-of-gold neighbour. The friend has a good-for-nothing husband while the gay ad illustrator is targeted and sacked because of his drinking and sexual orientation. Cold War in some detail, with the space race as the centre-piece. Espionage and murder. Dog v/s amphibian. A retired Colonel who captures an amphibian in the Amazon and manages to cart him all the way to the USA facility, only to have his fingers bitten off at the first possible opportunity. Del Toro’s fixation with the amphibian’s torture and repulsive finger play, pun intended.

Water remains the universal solvent ad the solution to all the problems. Elisa was found in water, amphibian asset is kept in a tub, Elisa is often shown bathing in a tub, there is laundry and washing machines galore, Strickland deliberately spills water to get Elisa to do some cleaning up, and no two creatures, expect sharks and whales, must have had as watery a sexual encounter that the two protagonists flood out, right down to the theatre in the basement. Banish any thought of Elisa being a mermaid with prosthetics or the egg-guzzling amphibian being untainted with carnal knowledge. No spoilers, but can you imagine a climax of a film named The Shape of Water without ‘canalfuls’ of H₂O?

"Not only was she the first choice, she was the only choice. I wrote the movie for Sally.  I wanted the character of Elisa to be beautiful, in her own way, not in a way that is like a perfume commercial kind of way. That you could believe that this character, this woman would be sitting next to you on the bus. But, at the same time, she would have a luminosity, a beauty, almost magical, ethereal." Okay, so del Toro is going overboard about the 53 year-old British star of Blue Jasmine and Happy Go Lucky, but he is not going too far overboard. Hawkins is really good, even reminding one of Julie Andrews at her best. Watch out for the foot-tapping, sitting down dance duet with Jenkins and the scene where she spans the range from mute to dull bloodied soprano back to mute. Great work by Guillermo too.

Michael Shannon walks in, and you now trouble has arrived. No disappointments there. Can you have empathy for a former drunk gay advertisement illustrator who has been victimised by the agency boss? More than empathy, Richard Jenkins emerges with heroics. Octavia Spencer is that kindly black woman who grumbles about her lot in life but will raise her hand when the time comes. Michael Stuhlbarg is thoroughly convincing as the scientist who is willing to put his life where his convictions are. Dear Doug Jones, if only looks could kill and gibberish could make women swoon...hold it! That is exactly what happens in the film, doesn’t it? David Hewlett is e quintessential Security Officer while Nick Searcy as Genaral Hoyt is made to show ‘attitude’ where none was required.       

The two scenes at the houses of Strickland and Fuller are predictably executed. They feature Lauren Lee Smith and Martin Roach. There’s a Pie Guy (Morgan Kelly) and some footage devoted to pies that beyond my comprehension lies.

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen and Costume Designer Louis Sequeira have a praiseworthy effort against their names. Alexandre Desplat is the composer of the film's score, which has some flashes of inspiration. In other places, it does not seem to be in tandem with the goings on.

Obtuse fairy tale or acute political commentary, The Shape of Water ends up half way. Half full or half empty, depending on your perspective.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFYWazblaUA

Coming up: BlackPanther