The Shape of Water Premieres: Guillermo del Toro’s Fairy Tale for Grownups

“Fairy tales are not for children,” said Guillermo del Toro, introducing his fabulous film The Shape of Water at a special screening this week. “They were created during times of war, pestilence, famine,” he went on, explaining the oft occurrence of violence, mutilation, and monsters. His masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth, a fable seen through the eyes of a child is now updated in this movie full of awe and unlikely romance featuring a creature from the sea as his new “innocent.” His savior is a mute cleaning woman in a Baltimore research facility, Elisa, a gorgeously realized role from Sally Hawkins. Early on during this award season, this performance, a tour de force of facial expressions and fanciful nods to movie musical genres, was high on the list for Best Actress. Now with the opening of the film, Sally Hawkins should be first up on that list. For many, The Shape of Water is the film of the year.

As to the leading man, he’s green and scaly and lives in slime. Doug Jones, who plays this creature stolen from the Amazon, told me at The Ribbon after party, the makeup took only three hours, a vast improvement over his usual prep time for Guillermo’s beings. Because “the asset,” as he is called in Michael Shannon’s villainous dehumanizing condescension, is thought to be a king in his world, Guillermo’s direction for him was to hold his body with regal authority, difficult to do when he is tortured with a cattle prod. The Soviets want him too. Michael Stuhlbarg as a spy, speaks Russian to the cake-loving operatives, a language he had to work hard to master.

Stuhlbarg’s “Dmitri” is one of the good guys, and so are Elisa’s besties, a fellow cleaning woman, Zelda, played by Octavia Spencer and a gay artist neighbor, Giles, with Richard Jenkins in the role, outsiders themselves. They live over a vintage theater, a colorful detail that allows del Toro his signature flourishes with old movies, seen too on television. Who else references Shirley Temple tapping up the stairs with Mr. Bojangles and then has Jenkins and Hawkins repeat the moves, seated? Ethan and Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, another Best Actress contender for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Susan Sarandon, Mira Nair, Oren Moverman, Robert Benton, and many others celebrated Guillermo del Toro’s glorious achievement.

Regina Weinreich

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