Review: The Shape of Water

The Shape Of Water
Cert: 15 / 123 mins / Dir. Guillermo del Toro / Trailer



Luckily, I didn’t need to study my calendar to know it was still January as The Rule-of-4*¹ held strong throughout my viewing of Guillermo del Toro’s surreal, fantasy-romance, The Shape of Water. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Working as a cleaner for (ostensibly) an aeronautics company in 1950s America, the quirky Elisa (Sally Hawkins) becomes aware of a subject in their subterranean research-laboratories - a humanoid sea-creature, supposedly of Mexican origin. Our heroine develops a relationship with the mysterious mute stranger and finds herself falling in love, and as her employers’ methods and motives become clearer, she hatches a plot to liberate him with her friend and neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins). But the path of true love never did run smooth, and more than one agency is interested in this aquatic asset…

Now, if you’ve read the word “quirky” in that first paragraph and thought ’oh right, I see...’, then you’ll have some understanding of my reaction watching the film. If the Q-word is going to be a problem for you, good luck with The Shape of Water. As the central character, there’s scant escape from Elisa's enforced oddness, and even less relief from del Toro’s apparent self-indulgence in bringing his and Vanessa Taylor’s screenplay to life..

Don't get me wrong, there is much (much) to admire in here. A solid story, great performances and fantastic visuals and creature-effects. But on a character-level, the film feels shamelessly overwritten, like there’s been no editorial process, or anyone leaning in with ’should we maybe tone that down a bit?’*². For the most part, the personalities of the characters we meet stay fixed throughout, with little in the way of development*³. Ultimately I couldn’t overcome the neatness of the story*⁴, even if it is framed as a fairy-tale*⁵.

I imagine you'll love it.

The Shape Of Water is basically a greatest-hits medley of Amelie, E.T. and Nightbreed.

There. I said it.

Pan's Labrynth.



It probably is, if you aren't me.



There will be re-watch value here, albeit in a 'have to be in the right frame of mind' sort of way.



It's not.



Nope.



Nope.



Level 1: This film's got that that Naboo village-girl from out of The Phantom Menace in it.





*¹ Whereby every movie I've seen in this first month of the year (which hasn't had a Disney stamp on it), whether that be an allegorical tale of miniaturisation, the study of a nation uniting against fascism or just Liam Neeson punching people on a train, has been met with a resounding shrug of my shoulders and a final awarded score of 4/7. Only Coco (which is technically a movie from 2017) and Star Wars (which is definitely a movie from 2017) have punctured my bubble of misanthropic apathy in January.
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*² Because it's not enough for the young guy in the café to be revealed as a homophobe, he also has to be shown as a massive racist IN THE SAME SCENE. This guy is all the wrong, DO YOU SEE? That section in particular feels like sketching a nicely rounded character-subplot, then throwing it in the bin because you're worried it's taking too much away from the rest of the picture. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ With the slight exception of Michael Stuhlbarg's research scientist. Although what we learn about him still doesn't really change the character's behaviour or the audience's perception of it. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ The early stages of the relationship between Elisa and the creature seem almost skipped over, whereas other movies would have gone on a detour of cross-species exploration. Here it's just 'would you like a hard-boiled egg?', 'oh, yes please.'. We have to assume the beautifully utilised sign-language has been picked up rapidly as we go from a one-word basic to pretty much full communication with next to no on-screen progress. And this is also apparently taking place in a top-secret laboratory which is not under CCTV surveillance (otherwise Elisa would have been removed instantly, lunch-break or not), while the loading dock in the back yard gets its own constantly monitored camera-feed. And don't even get me started on how smoothly Dimitri's own plans for the creature are altered to seamlessly fit in with Elisa's, apparently with little or no actual discussion. I have no problem believing a sea-monster exists, but do not mess around on the admin, Guillermo. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁵ SPOILERS: Highlight-to-read And the guy next to me (an adult human old enough to have seen other films) did a little gasp of realisation at 'that reveal moment' with the scars on Elisa's neck. It was all I could do to not take him to one side during the closing credits and be like "Seriously, though? Mate, that's been relentlessly telegraphed since the beginning of the film. It's an early-tell which explains the rest of the film before it's happened. The film's about water. You don't need a masters-degree in H.P. Lovecraft to see where that was going…" ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Cert: 15 / 119 mins / Dir. Guillermo Del Toro / Trailer



Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 fable is part Alice in Wonderland, part Wizard of Oz, with maybe just a soupçon of Wolfenstein sprinkled over the top. It's essentially Nightbreed without the cheese…

Set in rural Falganist Spain in 1944, the film follows a young girl, Ofelia, trying to protect her pregnant mother from her stepfather, a fascistic army captain who is only interested in the heir his wife is carrying. Visited one night by a 'fairy', Ofelia is led to an underground labyrinth and meets the horned, goat-legged Fauno, who tells her she can be freed if she fulfills three tasks to prove herself...

That the story borrows so heavily from established mythology yet still manages to be its own film is a credit to Del Toro, and Pan's Labyrinth is charming and creepy in equal measure. The two halves of the narrative, the events in the real world and Ofelia's trials in the Underworld, are balanced perfectly and never fight for screen-time, intertwining and cyclically feeding off each other.

If I have any real criticism at all, it's that the gunshots fired in the film seem to have no impact whatsoever (literally; no recoil from the shooters/weapons, and no signs of force or movement upon the people being shot, other than the VFX/CGI department inking in some blood). I know it seems like a flippant point to make, but many of these points are meant to anchor the audience back to reality, when in fact they're less believable than the fairies that follow Ofelia around. It seems odd that a director who can show us vengeful stabbings and a man stitching his slashed-open cheek back together, can't master something as impersonal as a gunshot.

All in all, though, Pan's Labyrinth is a truly exquisite film. Not really made with me in mind admittedly, but I can see why so many people love it…

I really haven't, no.



I am. This will be the first of a few viewings, but I'm not sure if it'll become an all-time favourite.



Yes.



There bloody isn't. AND the film features people getting shot and falling off horses. Sort that out, eh?



Fauno actor Doug Jones starred in 2012's John Dies At The End alongside Clancy Brown, the voice of Savage Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

On a less-connected note, The Faun also reminded me constantly of Jabba's majordomo, Bib Fortuna. Although there's more than a hint of Jabba about the toad, too. But maybe that's just me?







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.