Modern fable, a different type of beauty and beast.

Rating: Null/10 (14 April 2018)

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. Much anticipated as it won a number of Oscars recently.
I was not particularly thrilled with the movie during most of its first half, I didn't really know where it was going and the military guys wanting to kill the creature from the Amazons in S. America seemed to brutal. But as the story developed and more appreciated the acting and cinematography I found it better and better.
Sally Hawkins is great as the mute cleaning lady, Elisa Esposito, working in a secret government lab. When they bring in the mysterious amphibious creature and store it in a water tank she is fascinated. Set in the early 1960s, in the Baltimore area, there is a competition with the Russians to see who could learn the secrets of this creature.
The villain is Michael Shannon as Richard Strickland, very gruff and chauvinistic, with a mission to accomplish. He is played partly as a mild caricature which works well and leads to some funny moments. Even though he didn't win any awards to me his performance was the best in this movie.
Richard Jenkins is always good and here he is Giles, a commercial artist, who shares living space with Elisa. And, although we never see his real self, Doug Jones Doug is really effective as the Amphibian Man.
The title of the movie derives partly from the idea that love is all around us and the theme is water here, it is all around us and takes the shape that it needs to take. I enjoyed the movie, it certainly isn't for all tastes but it is quite different from most modern movies. The DVD extras are also very interesting, explaining concepts and showing some of how the movie was made.
SPOILERS follow, do not read further if you haven't seen the movie. Elisa plans and executes a daring heist, sneaking the Amphibian out of the lab and into her apartment just before it was to be killed and vivisected. She has fallen in love with it, they actually have sex. In the end, needing to get him back into salty water Strickland finds them and shoots both of them. But the Amphibian has magical healing abilities, he gets up and dispatches Strickland with a great slash to the throat, then carries Elisa into the water, and facilitates her developing gills, she is alive, they live happily ever after.