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Hello and welcome to Griddy Films Itty Bitty spoiler-free review for The
Shape of Water, the 2017 fantasy film written by Guillermo del Toro and
Vanessa Taylor, directed by del Toro, and it's starring Sally Hawkins and Doug
Jones. If you haven't seen The Shape of Water yet, it's kind of like if the
movies King Kong and ET had a baby and that movie baby grew up watching only
musicals and monster movies of the 1940s and 50s. It seems a little out there but I
think you'll get what I'm saying when you see it. This movie had very little in
the way of weaknesses. If you've seen my review for Pan's Labyrinth, this is gonna kind
of the same feel in that there was not a ton to really complain about. Definitely one
of the weaker points is gonna come in the writing. Without giving away any spoilers,
I'll just say that the writing, it was just one of the weaker points in the
movie, particularly when it came to character development. The world was
developed really well, there was some great dialogue in there,
the plot is excellent, you know, there's a lot of really strong points within the
writing but the character development overall and the character arcs,
particularly with the protagonist, are a little bit on the weaker side. I still
gave the writing category an A- overall, so it's not like the the
weaknesses with the characters were awful or drop the score down too much.
You know, the weaknesses are worth talking about. There's some good
discussions to be had there. I'm not trying to brush those aside, I just, you
know, don't want to give away any spoilers. So, let's say there are some
weaknesses, there's some stuff that needs to be discussed, but overall still fairly
strong, still gave it an A-. As far as the strengths of The Shape of
Water go, pretty much every aspect of this movie is a strength and one of the
things that I really, really liked, and it kind of helps to to make up for some of
the weaknesses in the writing, is gonna come in genre. I thought there was
really interesting things being done with some genre blending of monster
movies from the '40s and romantic fairy tales kind of along lines of Beauty and
the Beast. The special effects are also amazing, particularly when it comes to
the Amphibian Man, played by Doug Jones. Pretty much every shot that he's in is a
combination of practical effects of Doug Jones in a rubber suit combined with
visual effects, particularly when I come to his
facial expressions. Almost all of that was computer-generated throughout but
they really blend together seamlessly and he's just a gorgeous--I feel weird
calling him a gorgeous creature but that's what he is. It's just, the attention to
detail in the character design of the Amphibian Man, it's just phenomenal and
true del Toro fashion. If you've seen any of his movies, you know
what I'm talking about and I think this might be one of his strongest. You only
get the one creature whereas a lot of his other movies have several, which I
think really allowed the attention to detail to be just that much more precise
and that much more impressive, which is saying a lot. There are other things
throughout the movie that are pretty phenomenal as well that kind of go
without saying in a Guillermo del Toro movie. You have an amazing soundtrack, you
have the aesthetics of the movie, both when it comes to the characters and the
locations. The lighting throughout--I hate to keep comparing it to Pan's Labyrinth
because it is its own movie and it stands on its own without comparison,
but just, you know, if you've seen Pan's Labyrinth it's got same kind of very rich, very
distinct color palette, it's very low-key lighting, you know, high contrast. It's
just gorgeous. The cinematographer Dan Laustsen has worked with Guillermo del
Toro before, he did the cinematography for Crimson Peak, but just really goes
above and beyond in The Shape of Water and, like I said, it's more similar to
Pan's Labyrinth but it still has its own unique feel, the cinematography tells its
own story, it's very very different. The way light and color are used
throughout The Shape of Water is very very different than the way it's used in
Pan's Labyrinth. I don't want to compare them too closely. Basically, if you
thought the cinematography was beautiful in Pan's Labyrinth, you'll think it's
beautiful here. It's pretty much impossible that Laustsen won't get
nominated for the cinematography and I feel pretty good that he's gonna win the
Academy Award for cinematography in The Shape of Water because it's just so
so rich and layered and gorgeous and helps the storytelling, helps with the
mood, looks realistic but still gives it a fantasy fairytale kind of atmosphere
throughout. It's just really, really impressive and definitely award-worthy
so I think he's a shoo-in for the Best Cinematography.
The last thing I'm gonna touch on real quick as far as strengths go is gonna be
the acting. I think everybody by now has heard that Sally Hawkins's performance is
just outstanding. I have no doubt she is gonna be nominated for best actress for
2017 and I suspect she will win. Her performance was just very strong, very
moving, very authentic, very just award-worthy for those
reasons. I'm not gonna talk about it too much here, I'll go into a little bit more
in-depth in the Nitty Griddy review, but it's something that's been talked about
quite a bit, so I'm not gonna get too much into her performance other than to
just say that it's phenomenal and it deserves all the praise it's been
getting. But I also wanted to talk real quickly about Doug Jones's
performance. He's been a pretty much every Guillermo del Toro movie and in a
ton of other movies as well. His IMDB page is crazy, but it's not really a
household name. He's always covered in makeup so I understand why he's not
recognizable as far as his face goes but his name should be well know. He's
extremely talented. The things he can do not just the physical performances but to
be able to do what he does while wearing rubber suits or, you know, whatever other
prosthetics or makeup or whatever he's wearing to make him look like the
creatures he portrays, it's incredible and I just--I was really hoping that this
movie would get him to be a little bit more of a household name. I noticed in
the opening credits of the movie he was second-billed but then on IMDB, he's, like,
way down here. I mean, even though Sally Hawkins is clearly the protagonist, her
performance is really, really strong, and more focus should be on her, but I do
think that his performance as the leading man shouldn't be overlooked,
either. I think he deserves a little bit more credit and a little bit more
recognition than he's been getting, especially for how long is his resume is
and how many amazing things he's been in. So, that's kind of my my spiel on Doug
Jones. So, the total score for The Shape of Water is gonna be a 96.2
which is a strong A+. It's not quite perfect, there are a few little
flaws here and then that just kind of knock it down a little bit from that
perfect rating, but it's really, really a strong movie, very, very close to perfect.
If you liked Pan's Labyrinth, you're probably gonna like The Shape of
Water. It's a very different movie but has a very similar tone to it, even
though the themes and the story are very, very different. And if you've never seen
Pan's Labyrinth, you should go see Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water
immediately. I really think these are the kind of movies that everybody should see.
They're very human and very touching and just very beautiful, just, reflections
of humanity. And I think the ways films portray humanity are what make film art.
So, I definitely recommend pretty much anybody go see this movie. So, that's
really all I can say about The Shape of Water in this spoiler-free review but if
you're looking for a little bit more analysis or some spoilers, don't forget
to check out my Nitty Griddy review. Hey, thanks for watching. Let me know what you
thought in the comments below and if you liked what you saw, be sure to subscribe
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