I Didn't Like the Shape of the Story..

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2018)

At first, congratulations to Guillermo del Toro for the Best Director Oscar for this movie. I guess one of the main reasons for that is how he got all the actors to deliver excellent performances especially Michael Shannon(as the ruthless colonel Strickland) and Sally Hawkins(the mute cleaning woman Elisa who falls for the amphibian man). The movie also offers beautiful visuals(of a 60's era) and also the effects are masterfully done.
So, on paper it seems like a fascinating movie but ends up as a surprise disappointment. For one, I don't understand the need for a sexual scene that involves Strickland or even if we were to ignore that, the use of graphic violence many times. As a viewer, I could already feel the brutality of his character in many scenes that didn't have an explicit display of blood or gore. Maybe the writers were not confident they could deliver a wonderful cinematic experience without them. Some moments were even unintentionally funny. There's a song & dance routine like in Bollywood between Elisa & the amphibian man, thankfully that gets over within a minute. And the climax encounter between this amphibian dude & Strickland where in those final brief moments, we see this thing all of a sudden emote and fight back like a pissed off lover! Another aspect of the movie that annoyed me is a remark by one of the characters Zelda(very well essayed by Octavia Spencer), Elisa's close confidante at work, about her dislike for people who biologically look a certain way. It was a minor conversation but I found it offensive and irrelevant to the story.
So unfortunately, Shape of Water is a thumbs down for me. It could really have been an otherwise epic cinema. If you still want to, watch for the shape of performances and the beautiful cinematography.