the shape of water...

Moira and I went to the Watershed again this afternoon… this time to see Guillermo Del Toro’s much-acclaimed “The Shape of Water” (it’s received ‘quite a few’ Oscar nominations!), featuring the extraordinary Sally Hawkins (as Eliza – an orphaned, mute, isolated woman who’s a cleaner working in a secret US government facility in 1962), plus Doug Jones (as a brilliant marine creature), Michael Shannon (Strickland - the cruel research head) and Richard Jenkins (Giles - shares a sort of father+daughter bond with Eliza)… amongst a very talented cast.
So, the facility receives a ‘creature’ in a tank, which has been captured from a South American river by Strickland… and the US government wants to exploit the creature for possible advantages in the Space Race.
Meanwhile, Eliza accidentally discovers that the creature is a humanoid amphibian and begins visiting the creature in secret, forming a close bond with it… which slowly turns to love.
Essentially, the film is a deliciously weird, extraordinary fairytale-cum-romantic thriller… Daughter Ruth described the film as being something of a ‘dark “Amelie”’… and I think this is a pretty good description (although, perhaps not quite in the ‘Amelie’ league for me, personally – perhaps my very favourite film of all time!). Like ‘Amelie’, the soundtrack is also an important feature within the film (eg. Alice Faye’s “You’ll Never Know How Much I Love You”), as do various Hollywood film references/extracts.
It’s certainly ONE of the best films I’ve seen this year but, perhaps fairytales are not quite my out-and-out cup of tea? Nevertheless, it's very beautiful and has to be one of those films you just HAVE to see.
PS: And if you thought Paddington Bear could make a mess in a bathroom, just wait until you see this!
PPS: But the film also highlights the awful homophobic, sexist and racist views adopted by many people in the US (and elsewhere) in the early 1960s. The fact that they come across as hugely shocking probably says much about how far we come since that time.