Well, Guillermo del Toro is one my favourites and his schtick is usually telling meaningful things with creatures and fantasy as catalysts. That statement is just skimming the surface of what this film has to offer (expect some water puns).
The story - 8/10
I'm going to need to tell the bare minimum about this story because going too 'deep' into it would ruin the beauty of the film. The film follows Eliza, a dumb (in terms of not being able to speak) cleaner in a government facility. While there, she stumbles across a government test subject who is a fish man and things start to follow along from there. The real beauty of the film is essentially on how it is all about love. Not love between two individuals (or multiple if you're into that), but love as a concept and how it's a societal construct. The film looks at three types of love with their downsides and upsides. Love that is openly expressed for it's emotional value, love for carnal purposes and the kind of love that can never be expressed or experienced in this world and love that gets none in return.
Naturally the whole story revolves around Eliza and her experiences with the social hierarchy of her workplace and her home life. It has a progression and ending that many would probably call a carbon copy of Pan's Labyrinth and while I don't think it is as good as Pan's Labyrinth's tone and story. Like it, Shape of Water has quite a magical feeling to it and the wide camera shots and angles along with the music drive that point home. There were points in the film that got so whimsical that it ended up 'shallow' and stupid but not in a way that said the audience watching it was stupid. There was also a particular moment that involved the fish man (I'll call him Abe Sapien from now on) and many audience members chuckled and I was annoyed with this. Let's just say, everyone loves Beauty and the Beast despite the fact that Belle more than likely saw some 'Red Apollo' and no one minds that.
The Characters - 9/10
Sally Hawkins plays Eliza and this is easily her best role of her career. Despite the fact she is dumb, the way she emotes does what dialogue would have probably failed to accomplish. Her face just tells everything we need to know about what she is feeling. The relationship between her and Abe Sapien is believable even without any dialogue to back it up, which I would argue makes it a lot more impactful and lasting.
Richard Jenkins FINALLY gets a role that he won't regret later in his career. Like many other characters, he is essentially using Eliza to talk to and to have her just listen to him as a form of therapy. As I previously mentioned, the film looks at different types of love. The kind of love that is explored through this character is love that can't be openly expressed in this world, but it does kind of come out of left field. But he is a kind of character that you can take seriously and feel sympathetic towards.
Octavia Spencer is an absolute blast in this film. She's a great actress in general but here she gets to show her comedic talent in this. The humour that comes from the movie mostly comes from her and her interactions with Eliza. Like Richard Jenkins' character, she uses Eliza as a form of therapy since she is a contrast to her where she talks a heck of a lot. Whenever the film gets too serious or not funny she'll definitely give you some form of a laugh. But she is unfortunately out of the 'each characters shows an aspect of love, but gets none in return' category.
Michael Shannon's performance is one that teeters on the edge of being too ridiculous. There are moments when you are feeling tense while being around him but I mostly found his performance perfectly ridiculous. There was this one scene where is meant to be threatening and torturing someone and it has moments that make you squirm in your seat and get you to the boiling point and then he goes off on a monologue about his favourite hard candy. Like dude, I like hard candy too but I don't announce it when I'm meant to be evil. As for a representation of love, he is the kind of love that is of the carnal sort, just look at his family life and you will see what I mean.
The Drama - 7.5/10
As I said before, this film shares several qualities as Pan's Labyrinth but it isn't as good. It tries to focus on a more realistic outlook than full on fantasy. But with the wide angle camera shots it still keeps the mystical feeling, and it makes you feel as worried as the main characters about keeping this magic a secret. The most effective tension and largest amount of empathy is felt towards Eliza and whenever something happens to the supporting characters, you feel it then it wears off after a period of time. With Eliza it is sustained throughout the entire film. Plus I will admit that I kind of rolled my eyes at the ending, despite the fact it was beautiful, it was the exact same ending as Pan's Labyrinth. Only with with Fishsticks.
Conclusion
While it isn't Guillermo Del Toro's best work, it's still a top film to watch this season. Give it a watch if you want something out of the ordinary and mystical. But do keep in mind of the similarities to Guillermo's other films.
I am giving this one a 7/10
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