The Shape of Water (2017)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro · Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, David Hewlett, Nick Searcy, Stewart Arnott, Nigel Bennett, Lauren Lee Smith, Martin Roach, Allegra Fulton, John Kapelos, Morgan Kelly, Wendy Lyon, Madison Ferguson, Jayden Greig, Deney Forrest, Brandon McKnight, Dru Viergever, Cyndy Day, Marvin Kaye, Jim Pagiamtzis, Cameron Laurie, Alexey Pankratov, Shane Clinton Jarvis, Evgeny Akimov, Dave Reachill, Matthew Mease, Amanda Smith, Maxine Grossman, Edward Tracz, Shaila D'Onofrio, Vanessa Oude-Reimerink, Sergey Nikonov, Jonelle Gunderson, Cylde Whitham, Dan Lett, Danny Waugh, Karen Glave, Diego Fuentes, Cody Ray Thompson

IHBM6.5Not bad

An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.

My review · Reviewed 03/09/2018

I think film suffers from a bit of the coffee shop effect in that there is a sympathetic figure, a romance and fantastic acting. Just when I thought that I could not see a movie that is more overrated than Lady Bird I saw this film. The acting is fantastic (Shannon is the real star of this film), the look and feel of the movie are excellent.... but we've seen this film so many times before. It feels like Del Toro just put a new skin (admittedly a nice one) and tossed it out for our viewing (at least previous versions had Darryl Hannah to look at). The social commentary was very much appreciated but was done much better in movies like District 9.

overrated