A unique movie but the concept is a bit warped! 7/10

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2018)

Review:
A lot of people have compared this movie to Amelie, which I haven't seen, so I was going into the film with an open mind. In the beginning, I couldn't see how this film was going to become interesting but once the mysterious creature, and Michael Shannon (Richard Strickland), came into play, I quite enjoyed it. You can't fault the movie for its originality, and brilliant performances from the whole cast but you do have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it. As usual, Guillermo del Toro pushes the visionary experience to the max, and his attention to detail is second to none but I found the whole "Beauty & The Beast" concept a bit weird, especially when they started to get a bit fruity with each other. Anyway, Sally Hawkins plays a mute called Elisa Esposito, who communicates with sign language and works as a cleaner at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, during the Cold War. Her only friends are her workmate, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and her gay next-door neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is a struggling advertising illustrator. When the laboratory receives a mysterious creature, which was captured in the Amazon River by Richard Strickland, who treats it brutally by repeatedly shocking it with an electric cattle prod, Elisa shows sympathy towards the creature by giving him eggs, whilst playing music. She soon realises that it's a male humanoid amphibian, and she regularly visits him in secret, teaching him sign language. Strickland convinces his superiors that they should kill the creature, to investigate his body for Americans gain but one of the scientist, Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlberg), who is really a Soviet spy called Dimitri Mosenkov, wants to keep it alive for further study. Robert is also ordered by his Soviet superiors to kill the creature, so the Russians can experiment on him but he has grown to sympathise with him because of the way that the creature has been treated whilst in captivity. Elisa hears the Americans talking about killing the creature, so she plots with Giles to release the creature into a nearby canal when it rains to give access to the ocean in several days time. During the escapade, Robert decides to help Elisa, along with Zelda who was initially against the plan. Once they get the creature back to Elisa's apartment, she keeps it alive in her bathtub, by using salt and a special substance that Robert gives her. To not look suspicious, Elisa and Zelda still go to work, even though Strickland is interrogating all of there employees but he's unable to gain any information. Elisa then becomes close with the creature and she initiates sex in her bathroom, which she fills completely up with water. Meanwhile, Strickland's superiors give him 36 hours to find the creature, and Robert is told that he will be extracted in two days time. Robert then goes to meet his handlers, with Strickland tailing him, and when Robert is surprisingly shot by his so-called comrades Strickland decides to save him, by killing the handlers. After interrogating Robert about the creature's whereabouts, Strickland kills Robert, and then he heads to Zelda's house to find out where the creature is. Her husband tells Strickland that Elisa has the creature, so he spares there life, and he goes straight to Elisa's, who has been tipped of by Zelda. Strickland finds a note which reveals the plan about escaping in the canal, so he makes his way there, and he shoots the creature and Elisa just before they are about to jump into the water. The creature manages to self-heal himself, so he kills Strickland and he jumps into the canal with Elisa, to try and save her life. Quite a touching story! The love story is strange but sweet at the same time but it's really the performances that made the movie for me. Shannon is brilliant as the villain, and Jenkins made me laugh as the innocent, gay best friend. Spencer was also top class as Elisa's close friend, along with Stuhlberg, who didn't know if he was coming or going through the whole movie. On the downside, no one seemed that shocked when they saw the mysterious creature, and you must be completely out of your mind to have sexual contact with it. I also thought that the whole finger thing with Shannon, was going to lead somewhere, and that whole "fill up the bathroom with water" thing was completely unrealistic. Anyway, I personally enjoyed the film but I don't know if I would go as far to say that it deserved the best picture Oscar this year. I did think that Three Billboards was a better film but Guillermo del Toro deserved the Best Director Oscar, mainly because of his contribution to cinema. Enjoyable!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also brought you Cronos in 1993, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak in 2015. Coming from an artistry's background, he draws all of his movies in storyboard form before production, and I must admit, he is an amazing artist. He's also an extremely detailed director, whose work can't be fully appreciated unless you watch films a few times. I personally think that he concentrates on the look more than the storyline, especially in films like Crimson Peak and Hellboy II but I'm sure that there are people out there that will disagree with me. With movies like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Pinocchio, Drood and Fantastic Voyage in development, he certainly has a full diary, especially after earning the Best Director Oscar this year. I can't really see a sequel to this movie, judging by the ending but anything is possible in Hollywood.
Budget: $19.5millions
Worldwide Gross: $195millions
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, Nigel Bennett, Lauren Lee Smith and David Hewlett. 7/10