A true declaration of love for the cinema

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2018)

Guillermo del Toro is back at its highest level after Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim, two minor films compared to the legendary Pan's Labyrinth and, now, this magnificent Shape of Water. His taste for poetry and dark atmospheres is right back, as his ability to mix sensitivity of things to violence. There is a lot of humanity in the Shape of Water and a mischievous magic from which Pan's Labyrinth was stripped. From the first frames, we are drifted away by the strong current of this extraordinary love story, carried by great actors and actresses. Deprived of speech, Sally Hawkins is a receptacle of incredible emotions and turns a potentially rickety exercise into a beautiful silent symphony. Michael Shannon has the mouth of the job, odious and fiercely bad, engulfed in his American vision of success. In supporting roles, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer ensure the touching and funny side of the set. And what about the creature, that distant cousin of that of the Black Lagoon of 1954? A creation in too artificial CGI is fortunately avoided to accommodate a little humanoid jewel perfectly integrated into the story and through which the emotion flows freely. An iconic representation of the acceptance of difference, sometimes martyr, sometimes lover, the keystone of this adult tale, the creature amuses and moves, without excess and with surprising accuracy. The subject, daring in its last faces, could have turned to shipwreck. But the talent and the energy of the whole crew, the care given to each image, to each movement of camera, to every word, avoids the ridicule, finds the right balance and propels the Shape of the Water towards summits of poetry. A true declaration of love with cinema, immersed in a great bath of nostalgia. A terrific film with well-deserved success.