A Beautiful Underwater Love Story

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2017)

The Shape of Water (2017)
Guillermo del Toro is back. Whimsical love story between a mute and a god-like creature from South America. A film rich with meaning. Cold War, early 1960s. The choice for neither of the lovers to have to ability to speak was genius. They communicate in adorable sign language, gifts of eggs, a card that says "Glad to have you as my friend", and emotional connection. Is this not the purest form of love? Early on, Elisa signs "You. Me. Together", and it is devastating when she has to let him go, making him understand that it can no longer be that way, that it is now "You. Alone. Without me."
The set, meticulously arranged. Besides the obvious theme of water, there is significant color symbolism. Teal is the color of the future. In general, other greens are as well (pies, car, lab, uniforms in lab, gelatine, the creature). Blue, cyans, greens, contribute to the feel of water and fantasy; almost a mystical world, Elisa's World. Everyone else's worlds (Giles, Zelda, Strickland) are Goldens, Ambers and warm colors (Air, Day). Red for Cinema, Life and Love.
Extraordinary cinematography. Elisa and Giles live above a theater, exhibited gorgeously when she immerses herself with her lover underwater, flooding her apartment and dripping onto customers downstairs. What a beautiful underwater paradise. This is recreated in the final scene, as the two lovers escape in the canal, oh so in love, together forever.
Each of the main characters are outcasts: Elisa the mute, her black spunky best friend Zelda, her older gay neighbor Giles, Doctor Hoffstetler (really a Soviet Spy named Demetri), insane villain Strickland who is so driven to perform he has little attachment to his family. It was quite the achievement in such an artsy piece to be able to make each of the characters relatable and lovable. More obviously Elisa, Giles, and the creature. But I also really felt for the undercover Soviet Spy, who actually double crosses both the Americans and Russians by playing a pivotal role in The Asset's escape and rescue. We see the lonely world he is forced to live in, paranoia and secrecy. One of the only things Elisa signs to him is that he is a good man. And he is. Pretty much the only flaws I saw in this film were in the characters of Strickland and Zelda. Both play stock characters, the over the top insane villain by Michael Shannon and the feisty, sharp black woman by Octavia Spencer, respectively. The first definitely seemed overdone and the latter was a little cliche for me, especially with the line, "What am I doing, interviewing the help?" (must be a reference to Spencer's 2011 Academy Award winning role).
Unexpected laughs, mostly from my favorite character, Giles. "Cornflakes were invented to prevent masturbating." Giles goes to a bakery everyday to collect Key Lime Pie he hates because he likes the owner. He tries to force Elisa to eat it with him, but it gives her a deep green tongue. Another time is when Elisa continuously signs "Fuck You" to Strickland, clearly driven to near madness, demands Zelda to translate, who tells him she is saying "Thank You". In the final scene, as The Asset comes back to life after he shoots him several times, Strickland exclaims, "Fuck. You are a God!"
Giles is an advertising artist and sketches gorgeous pictures of the creature. He watches black and white musicals, which leads to one of the best fantasy scenes in the film, Elisa and the creature are in black and white, Elisa magically has her voice, and the two of them dance and sing, with a band playing in the background. Old films are often playing at The Orpheus. An important one is "Ruth", which features the line most famously read during weddings, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." what could be more fitting for this life changing love affair?
At first, I had mixed feelings on the ending. The more I thought about it, though, it was perfect, following the theme of an adult fairy tale. Once known only as The Asset to the Cold War powers, the creature is now everything to Elisa. He not only heals her, but transforms her childhood scars into gills, providing her the ability to be with him forever. That is what she wants most of all, after all.
When Giles first meets The Asset, he is taken aback and his first words, quite plainly, are "He's so beautiful". He is surprised, and maybe we are a little as well. Like Elisa, these characters are not conventionally beautiful. I would say the same regarding "The Shape of Water". It is so unique, so weird, so whimsical. A sui generis. But somehow it works. And stunningly beautiful it is, emotionally and visually.
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