The Shape Of Water

Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape Of Water has finally been watched and it is indeed a beautiful movie. It's also a fairy tale/monster movie that he has long been cultivating. Throughout the film, I kept thinking of one of my favorite French movies, Amelie, because of the rich look of the film, use of color, fantasy, music, and because of the performance of actress Sally Hawkins imbued with love and humanity beyond all reason. There are certainly other good performances with the likes of Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, and of course the heavy of the story, Michael Shannon (who is like an old Hollywood villain actor with his menacing face). But also like Amelie, all these elements remind me of that special imaginative quality that movies of long ago used to have in abundance. On paper by itself, the idea of falling in love with a creature doesn't quite work so easily and so it needs to be bolstered by the script, performances, pushed with imagination, and other elements. But none more important than earnest love for the idea, perseverance, and diligence in executing the other elements. Guillermo is the writer and director of this and he does what I think no other writer/director could do to see this vision through in the finest form. Like he explains, "love and water are the most malleable things in the universe".