A flawless story but slow and boring at times.

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2018)

The Shape of Water shows Guillermo del Toro visionary direction of a tale that is a love story with a bit of fantasy. The film does well with its storytelling, interesting characters, the concept of a creature that looks like it came out of Creature from the Black Lagoon falling for a mute girl.
Guillermo del Toro script does well with its storytelling. A girl falling in love with a sea creature. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute girl that works at a factory that is mostly kept secret with the experiments done within the facility. Elisa goes day by day, waking up and being lonely, she even has a set timer for her self fun time, and she works and after spending time with her lonely neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins). Giles is obsessed with key lime pies that he keeps in his fridge, which is a lot of pies that he saves for later. And also has an apartment filled with cats. Then, Elisa notices Richard (Michael Shannon) and his secret government project he needs to hide in their facility which is a humanoid sea creature. Elisa becomes friends with the creature by feeding it eggs during her lunch breaks and notices the creature is not the threat they all assume. Richard trying to figure out what it is before the soviets try to steal their specimen away. Elisa helps breaks the creature free and falls for the creature.
What I like about the film is it does have a visionary tale. And del Toro always does it best. Every character is distinct and different. Sally Hawkins is a mute girl and sweet and charming with her performance. You can't help but to love her performance. Michael Shannon is addicted to painkillers and racist and becomes very nasty as the villain. A colonel that wants to get the job done by any means necessary. Richard Jenkins was good as a crazy cat man and obsessed with his key lime pie that tries to be friends with the waiter at a diner. Octavia Spencer is good as Elisa's friend. And Doug Jones as the amphibian man, if it was visual effects or practical make up work. It was well done.
The concept was neat as it plays in the 1960s. The time were the soviets was on the trail of trying to steal the americans amphibian creature. And also the fear of spies within the facility.
What I did not like about the film is the plot is slow moving. Which can be boring at times. Seeing Elisa go through her day-to-day routines can be repetitive and boring. Also, there is one weird musical scene that just took the tone and direction away from the movie. When Elisa and the Amphibian are on the dining room and she burst into an imaginary musical sequence was cheesy and weird.
Overall, The Shape of Water was a fair fantasy drama film.