Last weekend, my girlfriend and I went to go see "The Shape of Water." Guillermo del Toro received considerable acclaim as the director of this movie. The trailers looked enticing, and all I heard from the reviews of this movie was how wonderful it was.
I wanted to see it, but it was not playing anywhere near us. It seemed a bit much to go all the way to Brooklyn to see the movie, to spend all of that money on tolls, or all of that time on public transportation hopping from the Path to the subway, just for a two hour movie.
Then, it finally came around near us, and so we went to see it. I was a lot more excited about it than my girlfriend was, both before the movie, and after it was done.
Just be forewarned, this review will include spoilers. So, if you have not seen this movie yet, and are thinking of seeing it some time in the future, be warned that you want to avoid continuing to read this article, because again, there will be spoilers.
I am serious! If you do not want spoilers, you should stop reading now!
This is not a conventional love story. It does not feature love between a man and a woman. In fact, it does not feature a love story between two actual human beings. Only one is human, the woman. The other is, at best, somewhat human in ways, and entirely inhuman in almost every other way.
I wanted to see it, but it was not playing anywhere near us. It seemed a bit much to go all the way to Brooklyn to see the movie, to spend all of that money on tolls, or all of that time on public transportation hopping from the Path to the subway, just for a two hour movie.
Then, it finally came around near us, and so we went to see it. I was a lot more excited about it than my girlfriend was, both before the movie, and after it was done.
Just be forewarned, this review will include spoilers. So, if you have not seen this movie yet, and are thinking of seeing it some time in the future, be warned that you want to avoid continuing to read this article, because again, there will be spoilers.
I am serious! If you do not want spoilers, you should stop reading now!
******************MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!*********************
Last warning!
******************MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!*********************
This is not a conventional love story. It does not feature love between a man and a woman. In fact, it does not feature a love story between two actual human beings. Only one is human, the woman. The other is, at best, somewhat human in ways, and entirely inhuman in almost every other way.
The creature bears a little resemblance to the Creature of horror movie fame. He lives in the muck, quite literally.
Sally Hawkins plays the main character, Elisa Esposito. Esposito herself is literally mute. She is a cleaner with no prestige or power in the country during the Mad Men era. She knows only too well how people view - and judge - her by what she does not have or cannot do. Again, she is mute and lacks the clout of the powerful men portrayed in this movie.
What draws her to the creature, however, is that he is the only one she knows who is simply happy to see her. He does not see all the imperfections, or what is lacking. He does not see her systematically as his inferior. She likes him because he likes her for who she is, accepts her for all that she is, and is not.
Slowly but surely, it turns into love.
And when it is revealed that the creature is about to be sliced up, dissected and given to research for exploration, she devises a plan to save him from his fate.
The powerful man in this movie, Richard Strickland (played quite convincingly by Michael Shannon) is disgusted by this creature. He mockingly reveals that back where this creature is from, deep in the wilds of South America, he is viewed as a God by the primitive locals. At some point in the movie, he lets us know that his idea of God looks like himself a bit. At every turn, he seems to feel a need to conquer everything and everyone. His disgust in nature, and his sense of superiority over it, bleeds through, as does his automatic assumption of natural superiority to "the other" throughout the film. He looks down on blacks, on Hispanics, on women, on Russians - pretty much everyone. Strickland is, in almost every way, the stereotype of the powerful white male with a sense of entitlement about him during this Mad Men era, which was obviously in full blast during the time that is depicted in this film. Hell, he even resembles Don Draper a bit!
What draws her to the creature, however, is that he is the only one she knows who is simply happy to see her. He does not see all the imperfections, or what is lacking. He does not see her systematically as his inferior. She likes him because he likes her for who she is, accepts her for all that she is, and is not.
Slowly but surely, it turns into love.
And when it is revealed that the creature is about to be sliced up, dissected and given to research for exploration, she devises a plan to save him from his fate.
The powerful man in this movie, Richard Strickland (played quite convincingly by Michael Shannon) is disgusted by this creature. He mockingly reveals that back where this creature is from, deep in the wilds of South America, he is viewed as a God by the primitive locals. At some point in the movie, he lets us know that his idea of God looks like himself a bit. At every turn, he seems to feel a need to conquer everything and everyone. His disgust in nature, and his sense of superiority over it, bleeds through, as does his automatic assumption of natural superiority to "the other" throughout the film. He looks down on blacks, on Hispanics, on women, on Russians - pretty much everyone. Strickland is, in almost every way, the stereotype of the powerful white male with a sense of entitlement about him during this Mad Men era, which was obviously in full blast during the time that is depicted in this film. Hell, he even resembles Don Draper a bit!
Richard Jenkins plays Giles, a homosexual man during a time when any remotely homosexual instincts of feelings is strictly verboten. We hear his voice narrating to open the movie, as well as to close it out. He is a good actor, and plays his role, and the conflicts revolving around the character, almost perfectly. He is in love with a waiter/cook at a local dining establishment, and goes there just to see and talk with this man. Yet, he is too scared to actually approach him or make any advance, knowing the stakes are extremely high.
Giles, once he is rejected by the waiter, and then loses what seems like a promising job, feels he has nothing left in his life. When Esposito revealed her plan to him, asking him for help to get the creature out of the lab, he at first thought it was ridiculous. But after an absurdly bad day that makes him lose all hope, he actually finds her desire to save something that has such meaning to her inspirational, and decides to go ahead and help, at great personal risk to himself.
They succeed in getting the creature out, and at first, everything seems to be working beautifully. No one has any idea it is them.
Octavia Spencer plays Zelda Fuller, who is Esposito's best friend. She is, on many levels, the voice of the mute Esposito, and it is clear that they very much care about each other. She senses something is up when Esposito misses the bus home, something that we sense almost never happens. After just a little bit of figuring out, she comes to understand that she has some feelings for this creature, and is planning some kind of escape plan, which she assumes will be half-baked.
Zelda's husband seems almost like a modern day Uncle Tom, providing the angry and self-assured white man, Strickland, with the information that he needs when he illegally, and very angrily, breaks into their private home. His fingers have been bitten off once by the creature, and although they have been reattached, it is clear that the operation was not a success, that he will lose his fingers. He comes to terms with the fact that they are lost during his outburst, and literally twists his rotten, dead fingers from his bleeding hand right in front of Zelda, and this is the point where Zelda's husband does the betraying.
Ultimately, Strickland finds Esposito and the creature, just as they are about to find freedom. The creature is going to go into the harbor during heavy rains, so that he might reach the ocean and swim to freedom. But Strickland arrives just before, and after punching Giles out, he shoots both the creature and Esposito, to the point that they both appear to have died.
However, Giles gets up, and uses a board to at least temporarily knock Strickland out. He runs to assist Esposito.
Meanwhile, the creature reveals his true power, literally glowing with light, and healing the bullet wounds from Strickland. He stands up, and sees that his love has been shot, too. So, he approaches Strickland just as he is recovering from the shot that he took. Strickland is desperately trying to reload his gun, but the creature gets there first. It is only at this point that Strickland realizes - obviously too late - that this creature, who is worshiped as a God by primitive natives in South America, really does have God-like powers well beyond those of man. But Strickland is not happy about it. Not that it matters, because the creature easily kills him then.
The police arrive, and things have to happen in a hurry. The creature grabs his fallen love, and dives into the water. Then, he uses his divine powers to heal Esposito, and somehow, as he kisses her, she seems to lose the need to breathe oxygen, and they will presumably stay together and live under the water for the rest of their lives.
Personally, I thought it was a beautiful movie, with a lot of symbolism. My girlfriend, however, was much less impressed, and could not get past her disbelief of the plausibility of the film, although she did sound interested when I explained some of how I interpreted the movie.
By and large, this was a very good film. well made and entertaining. It is moving, as well, and a true, if unconventional, story on the power of love. Highly recommend seeing it, if you get the chance!
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