THE SHAPE OF WATER

US, 2017, 123 minutes, Colour.
Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, David Hewlett, Nick Searcy.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Has water shape? But it can be shaped by its containers. Has water a life? Depending on how you look at it, its qualities, life-giving.

There are many aspects of water in this film. But, the initial water focus is on a strange amphibian, brought from the Amazon region to a facility in the United States for examination. For those with movie memories – and Guillermo del Toro certainly has these with many illusions and quotes in this film, Shirley Temple and Bojangles dancing, Betty Grable and musicals, Alice Faye singing the Oscar-winner, You’ll Never Know – there is the 1950s Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The amphibian is brought to a facility in an American city which, to all intents and purposes, looks to have been created in a studio, the exteriors of the street, side of the local cinema, the interiors of the apartments. But this is in contrast to the facility where the amphibian is kept, military, security and laboratories, sterile corridors, a white coated staff for medical purposes, officials for experiments and, significantly for this story, the cleaners.

But, this is a story of Elisa, a mute but hearing woman who lives alone in her apartment, gets up in the morning, starts her routine, bath, sexual awareness, breakfast, bringing food to her kindly neighbour, going to work – where she is one of the cleaners, along with the benign Zelda.

British actress, Sally Hawkins, so good in such films as Happy-Go-Lucky, Blue Jasmine, and Mrs Brown in the Paddington films, is Elisa, a woman of pathos but of determination. Octavia Spencer, becoming indispensable to so many films, is Zelda.

But, the beginning of the film gives it a fable tone rather than emphasis on realism. An elderly, private and timid, commercial sketcher, Giles (Richard Jenkins) introduces us in voice-over to the story of a Princess. She is Elisa. However, he might have said this is a variation on Beauty and the Beast. And this is the interest of the co-writer and director, Guillermo del Toro. From Mexico, he has built up a reputation over the decades of creating myths and fables, including The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, as well as enjoying creating monster stories, Mimic and Pacific Rim and the Hellboy films. He is able to combine both interests in an arresting way.

In the local facility, scientists are concerned about space travel, beating the Russians into space, studying how humans can survive in space travel – and hence wanting to dissect and study the amphibian (Doug Jones). Elisa makes friends, brings eggs, plays music, and the amphibian is able to comprehend her sign language. It is not a spoiler to say that the central part of the film is Giles and the two women spiriting the amphibian out of the facility and into the apartment.

The man in charge of the experiment is Richard Strickland, played by Michael Shannon in a very Michael Shannon kind of role, always seeming sinister, intense, short-fused…

So, the drama is the search for the amphibian, Elisa keeping him in her apartment with Giles’s help until it is time for him to go back to the sea.

There is a very emotional conclusion to this fairytale involving death and life.

1. The title? The focus on water, visually, thematically? The creature, the background of the Amazon? The sea and canals? Rain? Baths? And the ending in water submersion?

2. The American city, the streets, the buildings, interiors – studio artificiality? The 1967? The rooms and the stranger look? The facade of the Orpheum, the interiors? The movies, Story of Ruth, Mardi Gras The television of the period, looking at old fox musicals on television, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, You will Never Know, and the comedy with Mr Ed?

3. 1960, Cold War and its background, the facilities, experimentation, secrecy and security? Espionage?

4. Giles, his voice-over, his talking about Elisa, his admiration for her? In himself, older, drinking, in his room, sketching, his commercial sketches, going to the office, his being sacked? His personality, reclusive, timid? Wearing the toupee and its effect? His life, the apartments, the super? His friendship with Elisa and sharing her outlook, the stories, and helping with the creature?

5. The film has a fable, the story of the Princess, the beauty and the beast, love, destruction? The fairytale tone? The interests of the director, fables and monsters? Combining them?

6. The amphibian, from the Amazon, like the creature from the Black Lagoon, the government handling the situation, seeing the creature as an asset, experimentation, keeping him in water, submerged, the possibilities for dissection? The background of travel into space, learning the human capacity for travelling in space? The comparisons with the Russians? The facility, the corridors, the various rooms, laboratories? The doctor and his staff?

7. Richard Strickland, his arrival, bringing the creature, his attitude towards the creature, the religious language, the ugliness of the creature, not in the image of God? His military background, with General Hoyt, his plans, the dissection, the study? Is personality? A typical Michael Shannon role? The contrast with his life at home, with his family, the children, domestic attitudes, relationship with the wife, sexual relationship? The later sequence at home and his bewilderment about the loss of the creature?

8. Elisa, her age, experience, living alone, her room, getting up, the bath, sexual, meals, food for Giles? The friendship with him, the visits to him? Her being mute, the cuts on her neck? Words coming on screen to communicate her sign language? Watching television with him, the delight with Betty Grable, Alice Faye, the tapping feet? The little dance in the corridor?

9. Elisa at work, late, Zelda and friendship, to the head of the line and checking in? The domestic work, cleaning, dusting? Zelda and her conversation, communicating with Elisa? The head doctor? The Russian doctor? The helping with the creature, Strickland and the severing of his fingers, Elisa recovering them, in the bag? Her seeing the creature, communicating with the creature, talking, bringing the eggs, his eating the eggs, listening to the music and liking the music, Benny Goodman…? The effect of the bond between the creature and Elisa? A variation on Beauty and the Beast?

10. Zelda, her personality, life at home, her husband, at work, in control?

11. The plan to take the creature, the vehicle, Giles and his toupee, driving, the Russian doctor? Crashing the car? The escape? Carrying the creature into the apartments? Filling the bath, the salt, reviving the creature? Communicating? Elisa and her delight, caring for the creature? Giles, his bewilderment?

12. The disappearance, Strickland and his reaction? His severed fingers and there being sewn on again, the smell? His accountability, not wanting to fail? Interrogating everyone? Interrogating Elisa and Zelda, previously meeting in the toilet, his condescension towards them, the touch of racism, explaining words and meanings to them? No real suspicions of them?

13. The Russian doctor, the spy, audience sympathy with him? His liking the creature? Helping to remove it? The Russian contacts, through the restaurant? The meetings, the plans? The agents coming to his home, eating the cake? The plan for the rendezvous? His being shot? Strickland’s reaction?

14. Strickland and the general, the command to find the creature? The intensity? Strickland attitude towards failure, his military service?

15. Giles, looking after the creature, sketching him, falling asleep, the creature’s disappearance, Elisa searching, his going into the cinema, watching the Story of a Ruth? The return? Elisa and her plan, marking the calendar, to go to the docks, with the rain, the rain filling the canal and his being freed? His cutting Giles, the rapid healing? Elisa, romanticising situation, the fantasy of her actually being able to sing, like Alice Faye, You’ll Never Know, and the transition to the 1940s black-and-white musical number with the creature and Elisa dancing?

16. Strickland, interrogating Zelda? Strickland’s realisation? Zelda, at home, with Brewster, his being laconic? Strickland arriving, Brewster telling him the truth? The threats? Zelda phoning Elisa? Giles driving them to the canal?

17. The confrontation at the canal, Elisa to let the creature go, his wanting her to come? Strickland and shooting, Elisa shot? Giles hitting Strickland? The creature recovering, the fight with Strickland, slashing his throat?

18. The creature taking Elisa, going into the water, down into the depths, the romantic image, Elisa’s recovery?

19. And Giles continuing to tell his story of the Beauty and the Beast and the fairytale?