Another del Toro fairy tale for adults

Rating: 9/10 (11 June 2020)

Guillermo del Toro's 2017 film The Shape of Water won many accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. It certainly won't disappoint del Toro fans, although as Oscar winners go, it's something of an oddity.
The Shape of Water is an adult fairy tale (a description provided by a behind-the-scenes documentary on the Region 2 DVD release) about a mute woman - Elisa Esposito - who falls in love with an "Amphibian Man" being held captive at a top-secret military base in the United States. The Americans want to dissect him, the Russians want to study him, and Elisa simply wants to set him free. Elisa ultimately succeeds, with some help from fellow top secret base cleaner Zelda and her friend Giles, the trio rescuing the Amphibian Man and thwarting evil and sadistic Colonel Richard Strickland in the process. In story terms, there are very few surprises: good triumphs over evil, despite a few obstacles, resulting in a happy ending.
But as is usually the case with Del Toro's films, it is the window dressing that makes this straightforward plot attractive. The characterisation is very effective: this is a film about outsides, with mute Elisa, Black and often-patronised Zelda, and closeted homosexual Giles teaming up to defeat the callous military might of the US, represented by Strickland. This theme of outsiders triumphing is never more obvious than when Elisa finds true love with the Amphibian Man in her bathroom: that a film which prominently features interspecies sex could win an Oscar is frankly astonishing; the fact that it wasn't even particularly controversial is a testament to del Toro's skill as both a filmmaker and a storyteller.
As in Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro (who co-wrote the screenplay) provides a deliciously nasty villain, in this case Strickland, who is driven, cruel and often petty. As in most of del Toro's there's a monster; in this case the Amphibian Man might seem to be it, but Strickland more accurately fulfils that role. Michael Shannon is perfectly cast as Strickland, almost stealing every scene he's in with a pitch perfect performance that conveys every one of the character's twisted emotions utterly convincingly. But he gets a run for his money from Sally Hawkins, who takes the leading role of Elisa and spends the entire film giving a masterful acting performance without uttering a single line of dialogue outside of a very brief fantasy sequence.
Everyone is well cast here, from the underrated Richard Jenkins as Giles and Octavia Spencer as the quietly loyal Zelda, to Michael Stuhlbarg as Russian spy "Robert Hoffstetler", who sees the Amphibian Man not just as a prize for his Soviet masters, but as something beautiful to be preserved at all costs. And of course Doug Jones, who has regularly appeared under heavy prosthetics in del Toro's films, also gives an impressive, dialogue-free performance.
And then there is the direction itself. Typically for del Toro, the visuals are very distinctive, from the sets to the Amphibian Man himself; del Toro has cited Terry Gilliam's work as an influence and it shows. There are characteristic lashings of gore, with Strickland losing his fingers early on and having to have them reattached, the Amphibian Man eating one of Giles' cats, and Strickland brutally torturing the dying Hoffstetler. Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack adds significantly to the atmosphere, since it captures the fairy tale feel of the plot.
Whilst the simplicity of the storyline will disappoint some audience members, that simplicity is the film's strength, or rather one of many strengths: The Shape of Water is another impressive addition to del Toro's curriculum vitae, and further demonstration after Pan's Labyrinth that fairytales are sometimes just too dark for kids.