MOVIE REVIEW: THE SHAPE OF WATER
Review: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The
Shape of Water’ is a Magical Movie
By Khansa Raihani
The Shape of Water is a film which makes the fans of Guillermo del
Toro’s works cry again. The previous film, 'Pan's Labyrinth', successfully
attracted attention and won some 79th Oscars (Academy Award)
nominations. Still with the same story-writing style and background (War Era),
now the writer and director, Guillermo del Toro, again made a work comparable to
'Pan's Labyrinth', but certainly with a different scenario. The Shape of Water
tells a lot of things, such as love, happiness, sadness, and fear. Besides, this
fantasy movie is also a picture of the real-world or reality where diversity,
minorities and discrimination are still perceptible today.
This film, with
the Cold War background in the early 1960s, has fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and
thriller genres. This film is able to combine several stories into one. How
cold and frightening the conflict is at the time, the love affair between Eliza
Esposito (Sally Hawkins) with an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), and also a
miraculous adventure which is told plausibly. As the creature, Amphibian Man, became
an experiment by researchers so that they could learn his strength to help them
in the cold war, this film could tell us of how it may happen in a sensible and
acceptable way. This kind of story will give an interest to the audience. In
addition, the story of this film is far from cliché, which we may often encounter
in romance genre films. The love story it has is unusual to see even in a
fantasy movie. It can be said that this film has its own originality.
The Script of this
movie is also very well-made. What every actor says will sound sensible, and in
accordance with the events in the real world. It looks very natural and well
understood. All of the actors also play their roles maximally. The relationship
between the main character, Eliza (Sally Hawkins), with the
supporting actors like her colleague Zelda (Octavia Spencer); a friend whom
she considers to be her own father, Mr. Robert (Michael Stuhlbarg); and an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), looks very natural. How they
speak and behave to each other can be seen as something that friends in the
real world will do or talk about.
In terms of music,
costumes, and design production of the film, those are perfectly suited with the
background of this film. Every situation in the film matched what might have
happened in that period. The style of the clothes they wear, the black and
white film Eliza watches, and the music that she listens to while dancing in
her house, really give the impression of the 1960s era. The cinematography also
makes the film look very clear, beautiful, and let people to understand the content
of the film well.
There are some things
that I regret in this film. First, the film has a long duration with a fairly
convoluted storyline. For example, when Eliza tries to save the Amphibian Man,
there are too many obstacles that she finds. Like when she has managed to bring
the creature to her house but then the creature escapes. After that she gets to
meet the creature back, and then it disappears again. The ending of the film is
also felt less satisfactory because there are some moments that I feel suitable
to be the end of the story, but it turns out that the story still continues
with a convoluted storyline. It is complicated.
Overall, this film
is very interesting and full of surprises. This film has a deep meaning that I
think everyone needs to understand: that minorities are still marginalized even
in the modern era as it is today. It can be seen through the expectations Eliza
has, where she always fantasizes about being a princess in her imagination, but
in real life she is nobody but a deaf-cleaner in a company. Therefore, when she
encounters the Amphibian Man who is also different like herself, she feels
bound to the creature. If you like romance and thriller genre, you really need
to watch this. This movie is very different compared to the other romance
movies in general.
The Shape of
Water
·
Director Guillermo
del Toro
·
Writers Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
·
Stars Sally
Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones, Richard
Jenkins
·
Rating R
·
Running Time 2h 3m
·
Genres Adventure, Drama, Fantasy,
Horror, Romance, Thriller
Source:
The Shape of Water.
(2017, December 22). Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/
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