The Shape of Water (2017)

At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

Director:

Guillermo del Toro

Writers:

Guillermo del Toro (screenplay by), Vanessa Taylor (screenplay by)

Stars:

Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon

Won 4 Oscars. Another 133 wins & 348 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sally Hawkins	...	Elisa Esposito
Michael Shannon	...	Richard Strickland
Richard Jenkins	...	Giles
Octavia Spencer	...	Zelda Fuller
Michael Stuhlbarg	...	Dr. Robert Hoffstetler
Doug Jones	...	Amphibian Man
David Hewlett	...	Fleming
Nick Searcy	...	General Hoyt
Stewart Arnott	...	Bernard
Nigel Bennett	...	Mihalkov
Lauren Lee Smith	...	Elaine Strickland
Martin Roach	...	Brewster Fuller
Allegra Fulton	...	Yolanda
John Kapelos	...	Mr. Arzoumanian
Morgan Kelly	...	Pie Guy

Storyline

From master storyteller Guillermo del Toro comes THE SHAPE OF WATER, an otherworldly fable set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones.

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Plot Keywords:

underwater scene | mute woman | creature | interspecies romance | sign language | 

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Taglines:

A Fairy Tale for Troubled Times

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

The vinyl records Elisa shows the creature are "The Great Benny Goodman" and "Glenn Miller Plays Selections from The Glenn Miller Story and Other Hits." Both were released in 1956.

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Goofs

The TV set in Giles's apartment - with its large rounded-end picture shape - is a Color TV appropriate to the year. However, back in 1962 that was a relatively rare and expensive item likely to be found only in a high-end home. The set in Strickland's home, with its squared-off B&W tube would have been more appropriate for Giles and vice-versa.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Giles: If I spoke about it - if I did - what would I tell you? I wonder. Would I tell you about the time? It happened a long time ago, it seems. In the last days of a fair prince's reign. Or would I tell you about the place? A small city near the coast, but far from everything else. Or, I don't know... Would I tell you about her? The princess without voice. Or perhaps I would just warn you, about the truth of these facts. And the tale of love and loss. And the monster, who tried to ...

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits roll over footage of a flooded apartment.

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Connections

Referenced in Todd's Pop Song Reviews: The Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2017 (2018)

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Soundtracks

The Wide Missouri (Shenandoah)
Traditional
Performed by The Corps of Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute and Tommy Sands
From the motion picture Mardi Gras (1958)
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

User Reviews

Self-congratulatory and Gratuitous, the Perfect Candidate for the Oscars

The Shape of Water is really quite remarkable for how perfectly it embodies the mainstream Hollywood sensibility. Its liberal-progressive undertone appears to be culturally relevant, but completely fails to challenge the audience in any meaningful way. Its story of people living at the margins of society bonding over their mutually subjugated status appears progressive and edgy, but its self-congratulatory moralizing suspends any need for serious cultural reflection. It is really the perfect film for politically correct liberals.

The film features the quintessential villain in the liberal cultural imagination today - a racist, sexist, ableist, psychopathic straight white man in the 60s with a white suburban nuclear family. The film really tries to show us how much of a psychopath he is, so that it can score progressive points without having to acknowledge or confront the larger systems of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism which operate as the social fabric of American society and provide the structural condition for people's exploitation and oppression.

In this regard, the film truly epitomizes the ideological manipulations of liberal humanism. Political, legal, social, and historical structures are conveniently ignored and replaced by a narrow focus on individual prejudices and cruelty. Social injustices are explained by the evil of specific individuals. Oppressed minorities are endlessly ennobled and their humanity uncritically celebrated. Villains are reduced to caricatures and do bad things simply because they are bad people.

Reveling in its technical competence and feel-good petit-bourgeois sensibility, the film is utterly unaware of its cultural vapidity, its artistic mediocrity, and its sinister complicity with the status quo. Sprinkled with some gratuitous violence, it is the perfect candidate for the Oscars - a polished, glib, pandering, ostensibly radical but ultimately uninspired fairy tale peddling a complacent and clichéd liberal humanism.

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Searchlight Official Facebook

Country:

USA Canada Mexico

Language:

English American Sign Language Russian French

Release Date:

22 December 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Shape of Water

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$19,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$166,564, 3 December 2017

Gross USA:

$63,859,435

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$195,333,312

Company Credits

Production Co:

Double Dare You (DDY), Fox Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1

Color:

Color Black and White (dream sequence)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1