‘The Shape of Water” is beautiful, to put it simply. One of the last and best films of 2017, this film has been nominated for 13 Oscars — and will hopefully get several deserved wins. Director Guillermo del Toro (“Hellboy,” “Pacific Rim,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”) has created his masterpiece.
But, like some of the finest works of art, more casual viewers might not get it. If your tastes lie more in the spectrum of summer blockbusters and situational comedies than in drama or period films, you probably shouldn’t go to see “Shape” expecting just another monster movie caper. Though a preview or two may have played up that angle, this film is just as much of a drama/romance/fairy tale as it is a creature feature.
Born from his own love for monsters, especially the Creature from the Black Lagoon, del Toro presents a Cold War-era tale that follows Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins, nominated for Best Actress), a lonely janitor in a top-secret government facility, whose life changes when she discovers an amphibious humanoid creature (Doug Jones) being kept in containment.
Elisa, a mute, is a fully realized and lovable lead character who’s given absolute believability by Hawkins. The actress could very well win the Oscar for such a perfectly endearing and humble performance of a silent character.
Jones’ creature is equal parts Abe Sapien from “Hellboy” and Gill-man from “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” As always, the actor delivers such lithe, primal and inhuman physicality to the monsters he plays that it’s very easy to forget there is a human inside the creature suit. A Best Actor nod should have gone to Jones for his engrossing and fascinating portrayal of the creature, but he was snubbed.
The film also was not nominated in the Makeup or Visual Effects categories, which is extremely puzzling.
Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins, however, earned Best Supporting nominations, with the former playing Elisa’s friend, interpreter and co-worker, Zelda, and Jenkins playing Elisa’s neighbor and closest friend, Giles. Both characters are as fully realized and endearing as the two leads. Jenkins is especially lovable as the lonely artist with a quick wit and sense of style.
But the great cast doesn’t end there: Michael Shannon masterfully plays prejudicially cruel federal agent Richard Strickland, who has an unexplained personal hatred of the creature and oversees its containment. Strickland is a true villain, in the same realm of hateability as Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He’s a great antithesis not only to Elisa’s kind nature and the creature’s naive innocence, but to the entire supporting cast involved in the central plot.
“The Shape of Water” is as rich in its themes as it is its cast. Each character is an outcast in some way, yet they never let themselves become or act like victims. Elisa hides that she feels alone, incomplete and different. Zelda and Giles — black and gay, respectively — are openly discriminated against for who they are. Finally there is the creature, locked away and hidden from the world to be experimented on by the U.S. government.
The film is as much a story of the oppressive and privileged preying on the marginalized and outcast as it is a “beauty and beast” tale. And it deserves a cascade of Oscars.
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“The Shape of Water” has extremely limited showtimes at Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.
George Haerle holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.
Kerry Hayes | Twentieth Century Fox Director Guillermo del Toro, standing, advises his fellow Oscar nominees Richard Jenkins (as Giles) and Sally Hawkins (as Elisa) on the set of “The Shape of Water.”
