A beautiful story of monsters and misfits

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2018)

I cannot stress how much I recommend this movie. I'll be the first to acknowledge that I've been lukewarm about Guillermo Del Toro. I think I wrote in my review of 'Pacific Rim' that my favorite part of the movie was it's exposition. I am ready to eat crow and rightfully credit Del Toro as a master filmmaker.
In all honesty I had admired Del Toro most as a film buff and stand bearer of the legacy of the classic monster films we share a mutual love for. Unsurprisingly that is a large part of 'The Shape of Water' s magic. In his Golden Globe acceptance speech he thanked the great Lon Chaney as an inspiration. This is the closest I've seen to a Lon Chaney film. It is a story about different misfits tossed aside because they do not fit into a world's definition of beauty.
'The Shape of Water' takes a great deal of risks and skates very close to being thematically over the top but it remembers that at it's soul is a love story anchored by Oscar caliber performances from Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones. All the performances are excellent and all the characters extremely well developed. Michael Shannon turns in the best performance of an already stellar career.
It's a movie for our times too. Although not blatantly political one can't help but draw parallels between Shannon's character basking in an ultra nationalistic Cold War setting and the era of Trump.
And really what a relief to see a pulp fantasy project that is completely original but has sprinklings of inspiration.
These are just first impression notes but I loved it. I cannot wait to get the Blu-Ray.