Director:Â Guillermo del Toro
Cast:Â Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer
Rating: 15
Running Time: 123 mins
Release Date: 14th February 2018
In the romance genre, Girl-meets-Boy is a familiar trope. Girl meets Boy, maybe Girl and Boy don’t exactly see eye-to-eye at first but then overcome their differences within the 120 minute run time and get married and live happily ever after. It’s too easy isn’t it? Everyone knows the words to this tune by now- all the meet-cutes, all the drama, all the eventual conflict resolution- isn’t everyone bored of it yet? Shouldn’t we be demanding more from romantic films in this day and age? What if someone were to turn the genre on its head totally? What if it wasn’t so much a story of Girl-Meets- Boy but- wait for it- Â Â Girl- Meets-Fish? I assume this is something akin to what Guillermo del Toro was thinking when he first thought about The Shape of Water, an ambitious and lovely film about Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaner working in a research facility who falls in love with the human like sea-creature being held captive there.
Let’s start with the good, because there is an awful lot of it. Hawkins is flawless- a lesser actress may have struggled but she never falters, her face and body language tells the audience everything they need to know.
Giles and Zelda (Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer) are the ideal best friends- warm and supportive to the last but not just written in to support the lead. Giles is if not an openly gay man then not a very well closeted one, whilst Zelda is a black woman in 1960s America and, like Elisa, rejected from society by her muteness, they face discrimination and injustices and the pervading sense of isolation that comes from being other. And make no mistake this is a film that champions the other- particularly when the conventional comes in the form of Colonel Strickland (a superbly evil Michael Shannon)- a traditional, straight, white, male character hell bent on destroying the creature he refers to only as “The Asset”. Black, gay, differently abled- and differently specied- characters are the heroes of this film- and given the general dearth of inclusivity in contemporary film Del Toro ought to be praised for this.
Of course, it’s not enough just to include diverse characters and expect praise to be heaped upon you for simply doing the decent thing- and Del Toro doesn’t. He writes and directs beautifully, ensuring all characters feel real and three dimensional , enlists musical help from the ever reliable Alexandre Desplat, and the entire film is a love letter to Noir and Old Hollywood. There is no mistaking his utter intelligence as a filmmaker: he is a superb storyteller.
And yet. It seems to me that a crucial component of a successful romantic movie is that you want the couple to be together. Reader: I didn’t. Now, as far as I’m concerned people should be able to conduct relationships and sleep with whomever they please so long as it’s consensual- love is love and anyone who says otherwise is a crusty old bigot. But- apparently- my liberal values and principles do not extend to amphibious men. Apparently that’s the line. As swept away as I was with the great, gutsy grandeur of the whole thing, there was also a voice inside me screaming “DON’T DO IT, HE’S A FISH-MAN SALLY, YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN A FISH MAN”. I am slightly ashamed. I’m also surprised because I did not have this reaction in the famous Boy-Meets-Fish tale of Splash. Is that because Darryl Hannah is a hottie and Fish Man is not? And am I really that shallow? Similarly, if I’m not for the couple at the heart of the story, am I against them? Am I… Michael Shannon?
I could defend myself here by saying well actually, why would I root for them? I don’t find him attractive (I mean hello he has scales! and fish eyes!) so can’t see what Elisa would see in him physically, plus we only see them together a couple of times: almost all of that time is spent listening to records and eating boiled eggs. Is that really all it takes to form a relationship? Shouldn’t there be something more heartwarming, more concrete than that to get the audience on board, or at the very least more screen-time devoted to their bonding? Then again, swap records and eggs for movies and pizza and I might be describing my own relationship, only my boyfriend doesn’t have scales. And thank goodness for that because apparently I’m shallow now and would leave him if he did.
So I won’t defend myself- how can I? Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece has outed me as a shallow bigot who is, by default, more in line with the villain of the story than the heroes. I’d heard it was life affirming but didn’t expect it to affirm that. And though I’m certain there is no director more qualified to bring interspecies aqua sex to the masses, I clearly wasn’t ready for it. While others whoop and cheer for it on Oscar night- as well they should for there is so much to love- I will only applaud politely because I will be too preoccupied with trying to correct my feelings towards human/fish relations. Watch with caution: I’m in deep water now.
