Like Lady Bird, The Shape of Water is another awards season contender that does anything but disappoint. Having recently won the Golden Globe for Best Director for Guillermo del Toro and receiving 13 Oscar nominations, it’s no surprise. This is equally haunting as it is beautiful in terms of its story, spirit, and visual nature.
Sally Hawkins stars as a mute janitor who works at a scientific research facility in the early 1960s. She stumbles upon a laboratory where a mysterious creature is being held for study and experimentation. Michael Shannon costars as a Colonel who captured the beast.
Once Hawkins’ character sees the creature for the first time, she becomes deeply fascinated with it and soon learns that it has humanoid capabilities and she begins to communicate with it using sign language. He has a real penchant for eggs.
She also discovers that the facility wants to use the creature to beat the Russians to space and she feels it’s up to her to save him and set him free. This is where it goes into E.T. territory but it works. Strangely or perhaps unsurprisingly, the creature and Hawkins begin falling in love and they share a breathtaking sequence involving her bathroom being flooded.
Del Toro once again brings his bizarre, fanciful sensibilities to the forefront in a film that combines Beauty and the Beast and Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Hawkins turns in a beautiful performance and she has a lot of support from the likes of Shannon, Richard Jenkins, and Octavia Spencer.
As for the visuals, del Toro crafts this movie with some haunting sequences punctuated by stellar cinematography and a musical score that accentuates the imagery on screen.
It’s no surprise to see how this landed 13 Oscar nominations, As a cinematic experience, The Shape of Water is unforgettable.
Grade: A-
(Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, and language.)
