Very Watery Fairy Tale

Rating: 4/10 (29 January 2018)

As with any Guillermo del Toro movie, "The Shape of Water" looks gorgeous, and the rest is competently done, if not very interesting or original. I have always loved Sally Hawkins in anything she does, and she's very good here in the put-upon Cinderella role. But other than that, I can't describe this movie as anything more than pleasant. Doug Jones as the Creature doesn't get much screen time. Torture. Egg-eating. Glowy sex. That's about all he's allowed to do here. For all we know, he's manipulating Sally's character into freeing him. We learn next to nothing about him and spend no time in his POV. Richard Jenkins is fine as a sad aging gay stereotype. Michael Shannon brings bizarrely unnecessary nuance to a role that, in the end, is nothing more than the hothead bureaucrat we've seen a million times; the nuance goes nowhere. Octavia Spencer does just as expected, nothing special. Overall, this might as well be a Disney movie -- except for the nudity and sex, which are fine but which seem incongruous in a movie that otherwise, in terms of plot and theme, is nothing more than a children's fairy tale. You've seen this all many times before. The special healing powers of the Creature are also very old hat by now. And the ending is telegraphed leagues away.