The Shape of Water
Heralded as a visionary, Guillermo del Toro brings his fascination with otherworldly creatures, paired with his unceasing imagination and artistry altogether into a story that feels familiar and strange at the same time.
In frames of understated blues and greens, this idiosyncratic world is inhabited by a monster and a princess, imperiled by political threats and discrimination. The poetic bookend encapsulates a storybook-like quality in a tale that inherits and defy many classic fairytale traditions. Like water, passion comes in many forms. Del Toro’s romantic sensibilities imbue the film with an elegant stillness that crystallizes a kind of tender passion. It’s a calm undercurrent that provides soothing relief from the shackles of prejudice. Deeply in touch with our vulnerability, del Toro clearly sees a peculiar beauty in what we perceive as weakness and a delicate strength that lies within. In a world where “humans” are plagued by mistrust and brutality, it is the “monsters” who can see the beauty in creations, who can extend sympathy, who can feel love. These are the emotional realities, so powerful, that can transcend the mechanical conventions of our material surroundings, our words and our fragility.
Hidden among the magical fantasies is del Toro’s playful commentary on film as a craft and as a business. In a film filled with respectful nods to those before its time, it’s hard to imagine that the talent behind it isn’t driven by a genuine passion for cinema.
It’s a fairytale, and like most fairytales, it’s not without its problematic elements but del Toro’s craftsmanship and his love for the cinema make suspending our disbelief that much more pleasurable.
“It was fairly obvious that the cinema should be my chosen means of expression. I made myself understood in a language that bypassed words, which I lacked; music, which I have never mastered; and painting, which left me unmoved. Suddenly, I had the possibility of corresponding with the world around me in a language that is literally spoken from soul to soul, in terms that avoid control by the intellect in a manner almost voluptuous.” - Ingmar Bergman
(Originally posted on 2 Feb 2018 @projectunwrapped)
