Beating the flow.

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2018)

The possibility of rejection from a significant other, or perhaps the fear of losing them creates a distrustful and a devoid of love atmosphere. The very ideals of us not being fitful in someone's life could haunt us more than what we expected to. The Shape of water is a 120-minute poem to the transformative form of love and a masterpiece of compassion adding the fantasy element to spilling proportions. A clear blend and synthesis of influences layered over the morals of how kindness evolves love even from extreme prejudices. The established world inside the screen emanates an idiot box ambiance which catches us off guard and encourages us to throw caution and all senses of notion out of the window.

Elisa (Sally Hawkins), is a mute cleaner in a covert government agency cooped up with Zelda (Octavia Spencer), a chatty co-worker with marital issues. Enter; the man-amphibian (Doug Jones) often called "The Asset", is a creäture with amazing capabilities pulled out from the Amazon where it was worshiped as a God by their natives. I'll leave the abilities to amaze the viewers without further spoilers. The asset forms the main crux of the story; unlike other mindless creatures, this one is capable of perceiving human emotions. Elisa's naked innocence and kindness lead her heart to make a somersault of emotions towards the creäture fading the rest of the world behind her. The head of security of the facility, Strickland (Michael Shannon) a ruthless agent determined to terminate the Asset for study purposes is introduced as the monster who tries to pull both of the lovers away with a Zod-esque performance. Such circumstances led Elisa, her close-to-the-heart neighbor, a closeted homosexual and struggling painter, Giles (Richard Jenkins) and Zelda to orchestrate an amateur but surprisingly slick heist operation to extract the creäture from the facility. The events that follow after the heist dispatch a frenzy of unaccounted accidents and longing love from the characters.

With a clear World War backdrop, the tension between the USA and the USSR fumes in every laboratory and strategic scene. With creature-human love themes, it certainly evokes memories from King Kong and Beauty and the Beast. However, it rises from the generic stereotype and varnishes its own color into the frame painting a picture with such vibrant colors that will make you wonder about the contents of the palette. With a tinge of B-grade romance backdrops, it does make you wonder its sanity and agenda midway aiming to make you swoon at every possible chance. The motivations and purposes of each character were beautifully folded from the deck it was presented artistically adding several layers to the otherwise simple story. A visage of masks and false fronts added by racial slurs with a pinch of religious devotion were the streaks adding to the structure of a farfetched story for the non-believers or the naysayers who proved incapable of opening their hearts to a queer romance. Clearly, this movie had no target audience, it either made you exalt at the belief of love through kindness principle or made it further absurd for the believers. After all, its beauty was an ambiguity left to the viewer to shape which varied alternately and perhaps drastically with shapes that were aesthetic for some while unpleasant for some.
The trending shared universes remind me of the recently launched Universal Studio's "Dark Universe" shortly canceled after the bombing of "The Mummy" (2017). Director Guillermo Del Toro utilizes his most used theme of monsters, outcasts, and freaks, takes a relatively generic relationship and twists it and adds his own brand. The Shape of Water is the realism of how gods and monsters fit into our mainstream world, where the supernatural elements are downplayed for good. Something that the "Dark Universe" tried to forcefully stuff down our throats was the possibility of mythology existing in our daily lives with an approach so absurd that made it forgettable. An extravagant thematic element like this is far more welcome when it flows through the minds and hearts rather than stomp right in our faces. The break-up of studio agreements and creative visions clearly made the difference it was supposed to make for Del Toro. With a queer cake blend of monsters, love, acceptance, and devotion, The Shape of Water can be deemed as a coming of age story. It is a fairy tale for grownups that delves into deep waters, the once taboo interspecies ardor breaking your heart and haunting your dreams.