Magical and beautiful, if you can suspense your disbelief

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2020)

The Shape of Water is about a mute woman Elisa (Sally Hawkins), who befriends and later falls in love with an amphibian man (Doug Jones) who was captured by Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). Along with her coworker/friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and neighbor/friend Giles (Richard Jenkins), Elisa saves the amphibian man from the lab before Strickland has a chance to kill him. While waiting to set him free, the two fall in love. In the end, it's revealed that she and the amphibian man share some sort of biological connection as the scars on her neck turn out to be gills. They live happily ever after, it is assumed by Giles's voice-over at the end of the movie, which is exactly what you'd expect from a romantic fairy tale.
I feel that this is a movie that, if you suspend your disbelief, will feel like a magical and beautiful fairy tale. If you start to question things, it'll seem stupid. I think both viewpoints are valid, and sometimes it's just whether the movie "works" for you that you can suspend your disbelief. For example, I think David Lynch's Eraserhead is just dumb, but David Lynch's Mulholland Drive is also one of my favorite movies. In one movie, I was able to suspend my disbelief, in another, I I just couldn't.
So yeah, If you see this as mute chick having sex with fish guy, this movie will suck. And yes, the twist lends some validity to the relationship, but I don't think it's enough if the movie doesn't "work" for you. But if it does "work" for you, the twist removes that gnawing back of your mind thought of "she's having sex with a fish guy."
Outside of that...
Michael Shannon as Strickland ("Strict land".... hmmm). Wow, he is just amazing in the movie. Everyone is great by Shannon is just perfect in his role.
The music, especially Elisa's theme, has that nice dreamy, fairy-tale waltz, aquatic feel to it. Beautifully fits into the movie.
The cinematography.
The Easter eggs or connections you find (Elisa and the amphibian man both being mute, Elisa wearing more and more red as the movie goes on, amphibian man killing Strickland by slashing gills on his neck) make for an enjoyable second viewing.
I think the only downside for me was the fantasy dance scene. I read it was meant to be an homage, and that's all well and good, but I found it "cringy" and goofy and took me out of the movie for a bit, which was a shame.