The Shape of Water (2017)

Set in an alternate reality where the Soviets are beating us extra hard at the space race, the Department of Defense has turned to a long-shot scientific discovery of a South American fairy tale: the Fishman.

Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute janitor at a secret DOD research facility in Baltimore, living in a tiny apartment next to an out-of-work artist, over a movie theater. Choosing to have a mute lead is an uphill battle for any story, especially movies, as they rely so much on character dialogue to keep the audience up to speed. Fortunately for us viewers, everyone taking to Elisa voiced their answers in such a way that it was easy to understand what she’d just signed.
And kudos to Hawkins’ use of ASL - it looked so smooth that I wonder if she learned it long before being cast.

The facility she works at is run by Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), who inherently looks like a bad guy, and portrays a flawlessly consistent, truly disgusting character of sexism, racism, and all-around superiority. While I’m sure much of that was era-consistent for the 1950s, that doesn’t make it any more comfortable to watch in 2019.

So: Said facility has come into possession of a Fishman. The credits labeled him as “Amphibian Man,” which I suppose is more correct, but it’s clunkier to type out and no one ever actually calls him that - at most, it’s only ever “him” or “the test subject” in the script. Fishman was played by Doug Jones, who plays many of the other alien characters you’re familiar with, like Commander Saru from “Star Trek: Discovery,” Cochise from “Falling Skies,” or Fauno from “Pan’s Labyrinth.” Clearly he enjoys begin wrapped up in alien costumes, and he does it quite well. 
The DOD believes that they can vivisect Fishman, learn about his anatomy, and use that to gene-splice an astronaut to go to space. It’s unclear why this version of history thinks that humans can’t handle space travel, but there wouldn’t be a plot otherwise.

Through an accident that involves Strickland losing two of his fingers, Elisa ends up in the lab where Fishman is being held, and for some reason she’s drawn to the tank that he’s in. She feeds him a hard boiled egg and then almost immediately they’re friends. There is a montage of Elisa’s repeated visits, bringing more eggs, or a portable record player, just to spend time with him. It’s hard to follow how Elisa gets away with spending so much time with Fishman, as he’s in a locked lab and there are security cameras and Strickland watches said camera feeds obsessively.

While Elisa explains that Fishman, who isn’t human and can’t speak any human language, doesn’t treat her differently for what she’s missing (her voice), it’s not really explained how she forges an emotional bond with the captured creature. The bond they share seems to start and end with “my life currently sucks, yours does too,” which is all the segue they needed to plan the breakout to rescue Fishman, but doesn’t do anything to explain the sexual romance.

Oh, yeah. About that.
Elisa has sex with Fishman. Multiple times. 
You never see the sex itself, but the lead up is very clear and Elisa pantomimes Fishman’s hidden member to a friend who accepts the entire concept far too easily. 
There’s also multiple scenes of Elisa naked, and one scene of Strickland having sex with his wife, who is bare-chested for the camera.
That scene included Strickland covering his wife’s mouth so she couldn’t make noise during sex, which makes it extra creepy every time he leers at the voiceless Elisa at work.

There were three sub-plots in the film, two of which revolved around Elisa’s neighbor, Giles. One was of him being unemployed, which doesn’t really go anywhere or lend anything to the story. The second was of him being gay and accidentally outing himself in public to someone who wasn’t (absolutely a no-no in 1950s America), which drove him to decide to help Elisa rescue Fishman, because he accepted her love for the beast too. The third subplot revolves around a Soviet spy in the research facility. Unfortunately, I didn’t have subtitles running, so the extensive Russian dialogue between the spy and his superiors was lost on me - I have no idea if they were trying to steal the American research, or just stop it. Regardless: he helps with Elisa with the rescue.

The rescue happens and Fishman lives in Elisa’s bathtub for a few days. Or weeks. During this time, Fishman willingly climbs out of the tub and wanders around the apartment, though he starts to get sick for unexplained reasons while Elisa plans for a way to get him back to the ocean.

The scenery of the movie was outstanding. I loved the set design, the costumes, the cars, everything - it looked amazing. As did Jone’s Fishman, which was a spectacular feat of costuming and not just something CGI’d over someone’s body.

The soundtrack all seemed to be era-appropriate, varying from lyrical pieces to just orchestral parts. I wasn’t a fan of the musical choices, but they picked a theme and stuck with it, so that’s definitely a positive. 

The entire opening act had a Wes Andersen feel to it, but with darker thematic tones, color tones, and an infinitely more adult theme.
This movie definitely earned its “R” rating.

There were a few moments of violence that were particularly impactful. Not because they were gory or bloody, but from the reaction from characters when it happened. The body language, the looks, the screams. All of it worked together to make some gut-wrenching scenes.

There were a couple items in the film that clearly meant something, like the color teal, or an obsession with hands and cleanliness, and I’m sure someone who likes literary analysis could decode that for me, but I’m not going to dig into it.

Finally, while this movie seems like it’s simply science fiction, there were a few odd fantasy features to it. At first I was a bit turned off by those twists, but they fit with the rest of the content and didn’t take away from the story, so I’ll take it.

Overall, this was an outstanding film.
I’d definitely recommend watching it, and it must have been absolutely gorgeous to see on the silver screen.