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The shape of water - review


Not sure what to make of this film.  It is directed by a Mexican, has an English woman and American dude as its main actors along with a strange amphibian of Amazonian origins.  It is part love fest and part heist movie, showing a gay man harboring an undocumented alien who in turn goes out and sublets to another undocumented alien.  Eventually the first alien has sex with the subletee.

It is beauty and the beast meet Mission Impossible where both beauty and beast are mute.  Set in the late 50s the film portrays a creature captured by the US military and brought to Washington for research given that it is a unique specimen that glows and looks like a giant mudskipper.

So as far as the plot goes we have a bunch of handicaps including the dictatorial military man (his ego being his handicap) prodding the amphibian to discover its secrets and therefore beat the Russians (who just launched a dog in space on a Sputnik) in a game of one upmanship.

It is fantasy in a very different light that moves slowly like swimming underwater.  Guillermo del Toro  in his directorial hat is entertaining to a degree but loses an audience like myself with a lot of what appears to be diversity and inclusion mumbo jumbo masked with overt sexual activity in the name of liberal art.

Saving grace - Octavia Spencer's character is hilarious and well played in the supporting role.
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