Random Movie Review - The Shape of Water

We should all know who Guillermo del Toro is by now. But I'm sure there are still some of you who don't so let's rectify that. So del Toro is one of the most well known film makers out there having made (directed and/or produced) a number of dark fantasy films such as Pan's Labrinth and Crimson Peak as well as the original two film adaptations of Hellboy, the first sequel to Blade and more recently the sci-fi epic Pacific Rim and its sequel. He was also involved in the making of The Hobbit films as well as the Trollhunters franchise on Netflix. Today we look at his latest film which is a dark fantasy film mixed with a bit of horror, some romance and a lot of drama with it having some resemblance to the BioShock games. Its won several awards at this year's many award ceremonies so chances are that you know its bound to be good at something. So let's literally dive in to this film:

Set in Baltimore, Maryland at the height of the Cold War during a time where equal rights was non-existent (mostly), we meet Elisa Esposito (played by the mother from Paddington and its sequel, Sally Hawkins), an abandoned woman who due to injuries on her neck is a mute and is forced to communicate via sign language. She lives on top of a cinema next to her neighbour Giles (played by Richard Jenkins) and works as a cleaning lady at a secret government laboratory alongside co-worker Zelda (played by Octavia Spencer) of which she and Giles serve as her only two friends and her interpreters. One day, the facility receives a creature (played by Doug Jones, no relation) that was captured in the Amazon River and is believed to be a creature with god like powers. Witnessing people mistreating it, Elisa goes about trying to communicate with it and eventually falls in love with it. But as things get worse with Soviet spies and Americans both wanting to do some pretty serious things to the creature, its up to Elisa and her friends to save it before things get worse for it.

The best way to describe this film is its quirky. Its a nice little film that is set during a difficult time and manages to have a lot of things going for it. We see Elisa struggling with life as mute, Giles who is trying to gain success as an artist, Zelda who faces a lot of racism issues, the creature who wants to be free and loved and at the tip of the iceberg is all the American and Soviet people who can't decide what to do with the creature. Everyone acts their parts really well (especially with the four names mentioned as well as everyone else), its visually feels like playing BioShock all over again, its got a lot of references to very old black and white films which give it some quirks. And above all else, it is definitely worthy of being nominated and winning the awards that it received because it is a really good film. In fact I would go as far as calling it one of del Toro's best films to date. It really is that good. Even some of the jokes are good, the sexual bits are quite amusing in a way and the brutal moments although sickly are great too. 10/10