Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’
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In ‘The Shape of Water,’ Guillermo del Toro crafts a visually fascinating, generously spirited fable of other-worldly love, where the life of a cleaner in a high-security government laboratory changes in shape — and meaning — when she discovers the living subject of a classified experiment.
Audiences of Guillermo del Toro’s films have come to expect that, whatever the scope, budget, or short distance from the mainstream, any feature of his presents the strong possibility of an artisan’s visual treat. This is a director, filmgoers know, who for the next two or so hours will make one of the most persuasive arguments in the industry for film’s unique capacity to make images tell stories — in the long angle of a well or sofa, the deep coloring of a tub or tree, and the nearly felt texture of a face. His impassioned though highly skilled argumentation is always front and center of a filmic experience, even when, as in the Hellboy series and in Blade II, the premise makes more assertive promises about the action to come than the art.
But how wonderful, how more accentuated the treat and pleasure, when Del Toro gives into his penchant for parables and decides to add to his catalog of fables....
Full Title: The Shape of Water
Director: Guillermo del Toro, award-winning Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist, whose films include El laberinto del fauno (2006).
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
Main Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer.
Studio/Producers: Fox Searchlight Pictures (Los Angeles, USA)
Further Details: See the film’s offical site at Fox Searchlight Pictures. See also studio press site.
