The Shape Of Water

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens December 8, 2017

Runs 123 minutes

A mute woman named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works nights with her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) cleaning an ultra-secret government laboratory. It is the early 1960's and the Cold War is brewing. When  Richard (Michael Shannon), a government agent, arrives with an unusual container, Elisa is intrigued. It seems that this container holds a top-secret creature (Doug Jones) that is to be studied and kept secret from the outside world, especially from the Russians. But Elisa is soon drawn to the creature, bringing it food and playing music for it. Against all odds, a romance blossoms. Can Elisa rescue this creature before it is too late?

This is a difficult movie to explain. It is directed by Guillermo Del Toro (who also directed Pan's Labyrinth - one of my favorites, Crimson Peak - not so good and the big budget Pacific Rim - decent). He does have an eye for detail and this movie is pretty amazing considering the budget was under $20 million. Sally Hawkins is fabulous and so is Octavia Spencer. Octavia has such a way of delivering lines. She provides most of the needed humor. Richard Jenkins plays Elisa's closeted neighbor and he is great, too. You must suspend all realism and just give in to this movie. I saw it twice. The first time, I didn't really get it. It was receiving such great reviews that I saw it again to see what I had missed. It was definitely better the second time and I came away understanding Elisa's relationship with the creature much better. If you go see this, just go with it and enjoy the acting, the atmosphere and the overall feeling of danger that the movie has. The payoff is at the end. If you like films that are a little different, then this might be for you. Go see it.

Movie Search

Find a movie by name, genre, or ranking.