Guillermo del Toro’s *The Shape of Water* (2017) stands as one of the most audacious and visually stunning love stories ever committed to film, a review of which reveals how the director masterfully crafted a tale about love beyond boundaries that transcends conventional romance. Set against the paranoid backdrop of Cold War America in 1962 Baltimore, this Academy Award-winning fantasy tells the story of Elisa Esposito, a mute cleaning woman who falls in love with an amphibian humanoid creature held captive in the government laboratory where she works. The film collected four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, cementing del Toro’s status as a visionary filmmaker capable of transforming genre filmmaking into high art. What makes *The Shape of Water* particularly significant is its unflinching examination of outsiders finding connection in a world that refuses to see them.
The film poses essential questions about what constitutes humanity, who deserves love, and how those marginalized by society often possess the deepest capacity for empathy and understanding. Del Toro weaves together elements of classic monster movies, golden age musicals, and Cold War thrillers to create something entirely new””a fairy tale for adults that refuses to compromise its romantic vision while acknowledging the darkness that surrounds its characters. By the end of this review, readers will understand why *The Shape of Water* resonated so powerfully with audiences and critics alike, the technical achievements that brought its watery world to life, and how the film fits within del Toro’s larger body of work exploring monsters and misfits. The analysis will cover everything from Sally Hawkins’ remarkable wordless performance to Alexandre Desplat’s haunting score, examining how each element contributes to the film’s emotional impact and thematic richness.
Table of Contents
- What Makes The Shape of Water’s Love Story So Revolutionary?
- Visual Storytelling and Cinematography in The Shape of Water (2017)
- Sally Hawkins’ Performance as Elisa in The Shape of Water
- The Creature Design and Doug Jones’ Physical Performance
- Cold War Themes and Historical Context in The Shape of Water Review
- Musical Elements and Alexandre Desplat’s Academy Award-Winning Score
- How to Prepare
- How to Apply This
- Expert Tips
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Makes The Shape of Water’s Love Story So Revolutionary?
The central romance in *The Shape of Water* operates on multiple levels that distinguish it from conventional Hollywood love stories. Elisa, rendered mute by an injury sustained as an infant, communicates through american Sign Language and exists on the margins of 1960s society. her connection with the Amphibian Man begins not through words but through shared isolation””both characters exist outside the boundaries of what their world considers normal or acceptable. Del Toro presents their growing bond through small, intimate gestures: Elisa sharing her hard-boiled eggs with the creature, teaching him sign language, playing music for him.
This accumulation of quiet moments builds a romance that feels earned rather than imposed by narrative convenience. What makes this love story revolutionary is its refusal to sanitize or explain away the physical relationship between Elisa and the creature. Del Toro commits fully to the premise, presenting their connection as genuinely romantic and sensual rather than merely symbolic or metaphorical. The film trusts its audience to accept this relationship on its own terms, and in doing so, challenges viewers to examine their own assumptions about what constitutes a valid romantic partnership. The Amphibian Man is never presented as a stand-in for something else””he is himself, a sentient being capable of giving and receiving love.
- The romance develops organically through shared experiences of marginalization and loneliness
- Del Toro refuses to treat the interspecies relationship as allegory, presenting it as genuine love
- The film subverts the “monster kidnaps woman” trope by making the woman the active agent of rescue
- Physical intimacy is portrayed as natural rather than shocking or exploitative
- The love story carries real stakes, with both characters risking everything for each other
Visual Storytelling and Cinematography in The Shape of Water (2017)
movie.com/imax-as-event-cinema-explained/” title=”IMAX As Event Cinema Explained”>cinematographer Dan Laustsen, collaborating with del Toro for the second time after *Crimson Peak*, created a visual language for *The Shape of Water* that drenches every frame in meaning. The color palette centers on teals and greens, colors associated with water and the aquatic world the Amphibian Man represents. These cool tones permeate the government facility, Elisa’s apartment above a movie theater, and the streets of Baltimore, creating a unified visual world that feels both real and fantastical. Warm amber tones appear sparingly, often associated with moments of connection and hope, making their presence all the more powerful when they emerge.
The camera work in *The Shape of Water* frequently employs fluid movements that evoke the sensation of being underwater even in dry settings. Laustsen and del Toro use this technique to create a dreamlike quality that supports the fairy tale nature of the narrative while maintaining emotional grounding. The facility where Elisa works is rendered as a labyrinthine space of long corridors and institutional green walls, contrasting sharply with the warmth of her cluttered apartment filled with collected objects and memories. This visual contrast between the sterile world of authority and the lived-in spaces of the marginalized characters reinforces the film’s thematic concerns.
- The predominant teal and green color palette creates visual cohesion while emphasizing aquatic themes
- Warm amber tones are reserved for moments of genuine human connection
- Camera movements frequently mimic the sensation of underwater environments
- Production design contrasts institutional coldness with warm, cluttered personal spaces
- Visual effects seamlessly blend practical creature work with digital enhancement
Sally Hawkins’ Performance as Elisa in The Shape of Water
Sally Hawkins delivers what many critics consider a career-defining performance as Elisa, communicating an entire interior life without speaking a single word of dialogue. Her physicality tells the story””the way she moves through spaces, her expressive face conveying humor, longing, fear, and joy, her hands dancing through sign language with varying emotional intensities. Hawkins reportedly spent months preparing for the role, learning ASL and working with del Toro to develop a complete biography for Elisa that informs every moment of her screen time. The result is a performance that never feels like an actor playing a disability but rather a fully realized human being navigating her world.
What makes Hawkins’ work particularly impressive is how she creates a character who is simultaneously vulnerable and formidable. Elisa is not passive; she is resourceful, determined, and capable of remarkable bravery when circumstances demand it. Hawkins shows us a woman who has built a complete life for herself despite the limitations society imposes””she has routines she enjoys, friendships she treasures, and a rich fantasy life represented by her love of old movies and musicals. When she falls in love with the Amphibian Man, the performance shifts subtly but significantly, showing us someone awakening to possibilities she had perhaps stopped believing were available to her.
- Hawkins communicates complex emotions entirely through physicality and facial expression
- The performance avoids condescension, presenting Elisa as capable and determined
- Extensive preparation in ASL allows for nuanced communication through sign language
- The character’s rich interior life emerges through small details and routines
- Hawkins balances vulnerability with strength throughout the narrative arc
The Creature Design and Doug Jones’ Physical Performance
The Amphibian Man represents a triumph of practical effects, creature design, and physical performance working in concert. Doug Jones, del Toro’s frequent collaborator who previously brought Abe Sapien to life in the *Hellboy* films, spent approximately three hours each day in the makeup chair being transformed into the creature. The suit, designed by Legacy Effects with input from del Toro and creature designer Mike Hill, allows for remarkable expressiveness while maintaining an otherworldly beauty that makes the romance plausible. Unlike the Creature from the Black Lagoon that inspired it, the Amphibian Man possesses an elegance and sensitivity that invites emotional connection.
Jones’ contribution extends far beyond wearing the suit. His background as a mime and contortionist allows him to create movement patterns that feel genuinely non-human while remaining emotionally readable. The creature’s gestures communicate curiosity, fear, affection, and eventually love through a vocabulary of motion that Jones developed specifically for this character. When the Amphibian Man reaches toward Elisa or mimics her sign language, these moments carry weight because Jones has invested them with intention and feeling. The collaboration between performer and makeup effects creates a character who registers as a complete being rather than a special effect.
- The creature suit required approximately three hours of daily application
- Doug Jones’ mime background informs the character’s distinctive movement vocabulary
- Design intentionally departed from the Creature from the Black Lagoon’s menacing aesthetic
- Bioluminescent elements were added to give the creature moments of visual wonder
- The expressive face allows for genuine emotional communication between creature and audience
Cold War Themes and Historical Context in The Shape of Water Review
Del Toro sets *The Shape of Water* in 1962 for reasons that extend beyond mere period atmosphere. The early 1960s represent a moment of maximum Cold War tension””the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October 1962″”when fear of the Soviet Union permeated American life. This anxiety manifests in the film through the character of Colonel Strickland, played with unsettling menace by Michael Shannon, whose obsession with the captured creature reflects the era’s dehumanizing approach to anything perceived as foreign or threatening. The government facility where Elisa works becomes a microcosm of Cold War paranoia, where secrecy takes precedence over ethics and the creature is viewed only as a potential military asset.
The historical setting also allows del Toro to examine other forms of marginalization that characterized the period. Elisa’s neighbor and closest friend Giles, played by Richard Jenkins, is a closeted gay man whose sexual orientation threatens his livelihood. Zelda Fuller, Elisa’s colleague portrayed by Octavia Spencer, navigates the daily indignities of being a Black woman in a segregated society. These characters form a coalition of outsiders whose very existence challenges the conformist ideology of their era. Del Toro draws explicit parallels between the creature’s imprisonment and the systematic oppression these characters face, suggesting that the same forces that would cage and study a unique being also work to marginalize anyone who deviates from the dominant culture’s norms.
- The 1962 setting coincides with peak Cold War tensions, including the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Michael Shannon’s Colonel Strickland embodies the era’s paranoid, authoritarian impulses
- Supporting characters represent various forms of 1960s marginalization
- The government facility functions as a symbol of institutional dehumanization
- Del Toro connects the creature’s captivity to broader patterns of social oppression
Musical Elements and Alexandre Desplat’s Academy Award-Winning Score
Alexandre Desplat’s score for *The Shape of Water* earned him his second Academy Award and stands as one of the most effective film scores in recent memory. The main theme, built around a deceptively simple accordion melody, evokes both the romantic films of Hollywood’s golden age and the French chanson tradition, creating an immediate emotional connection while maintaining an air of melancholy. Desplat employs unusual instrumentation throughout, including extensive use of woodwinds and strings that create flowing, water-like textures supporting the visual aesthetic.
The score never overwhelms the intimate drama but instead elevates moments of connection and tension with precision. The film’s relationship with classic Hollywood musicals extends beyond the score to include a fantasy sequence where Elisa and the Amphibian Man dance together in a black-and-white dreamscape reminiscent of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films. This sequence, where Elisa imagines herself singing “You’ll Never Know,” represents the only moment in the film where we hear her voice, and its placement within a fantasy underscores the impossibility of the romance while simultaneously affirming its emotional truth. Del Toro uses the musical traditions of classic cinema to place his unconventional love story within a continuum of screen romance, arguing that Elisa and the creature’s love is as valid as any that came before.
How to Prepare
- **Familiarize yourself with classic monster movies, particularly *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (1954)**: Del Toro has spoken extensively about how *Creature from the Black Lagoon* shaped his imagination as a child, and he conceived *The Shape of Water* partly as a response to that film. Understanding the original allows viewers to appreciate how del Toro subverts and reimagines the monster movie template, transforming the creature from threat to romantic lead.
- **Watch golden age Hollywood musicals to understand the film’s romantic vocabulary**: Films like *An American in Paris*, *Singin’ in the Rain*, and the Astaire-Rogers collaborations inform the aesthetic and emotional register del Toro employs. The fantasy dance sequence directly references this tradition, and understanding these films deepens appreciation for what del Toro accomplishes.
- **Research the historical context of 1962 America**: Understanding the Cold War tensions, civil rights struggles, and social conformity of the early 1960s illuminates the film’s thematic concerns. The specific anxieties of the era””fear of Soviet infiltration, rigid gender roles, enforced heterosexuality, racial segregation””all inform the characters’ circumstances and choices.
- **Explore del Toro’s previous work, especially *Pan’s Labyrinth* and the *Hellboy* films**: Del Toro returns obsessively to certain themes and images throughout his career, and understanding his artistic preoccupations enriches engagement with *The Shape of Water*. His fascination with monsters, outsiders, and the redemptive power of fantasy connects all his work.
- **Consider the film as fairy tale rather than realistic drama**: Approaching *The Shape of Water* with fairy tale expectations””where love transforms, where magic is real, where the marginalized can triumph””allows for fuller emotional engagement. Del Toro deliberately employs fairy tale structures and imagery, and viewing the film through this lens resolves apparent logical inconsistencies.
How to Apply This
- **Notice how del Toro uses visual motifs to communicate theme**: Pay attention to the recurring imagery of water, the color palette shifts, and how the camera moves through spaces. These visual elements carry meaning beyond their surface beauty, and tracking them reveals the film’s deeper concerns.
- **Follow the parallel storylines to understand the coalition of outsiders**: Each supporting character””Giles, Zelda, even the Soviet spy Hoffstetler””faces their own form of marginalization. Understanding how their struggles mirror Elisa’s enriches the film’s argument about solidarity among the excluded.
- **Consider the creature’s perspective throughout the narrative**: Although we primarily follow Elisa, the Amphibian Man has his own arc from captive to lover to agent of his own destiny. Tracking his development reveals how del Toro constructs him as a full character rather than a mere object of romance.
- **Reflect on what the film suggests about the nature of humanity**: Del Toro repeatedly contrasts the cruelty of “civilized” characters like Strickland with the tenderness shown by those society deems less than human. Consider what the film argues about who truly possesses humanity and what criteria should define it.
Expert Tips
- **Pay attention to Sally Hawkins’ hands throughout the film**: Her sign language carries emotional nuance beyond mere translation, and the evolution of how she communicates with the creature charts the development of their relationship with remarkable precision.
- **Listen for the recurring musical motifs in Desplat’s score**: The main theme appears in various arrangements and contexts throughout the film, and tracking its appearances reveals how the score comments on and enhances the narrative.
- **Notice how water appears in nearly every scene**: Whether as rain, in bathtubs, flooding Elisa’s apartment, or the river where the film climaxes, water functions as a unifying visual and thematic element that rewards careful attention.
- **Consider the film’s debt to Beauty and the Beast traditions**: Del Toro is working within a lineage of stories about women who love monsters, and understanding this tradition illuminates both what he borrows and what he transforms.
- **Watch the film multiple times to catch visual details**: Del Toro and his design team packed every frame with meaningful details, from the movies playing in the theater below Elisa’s apartment to the objects she collects. Repeat viewings consistently reveal new elements that enrich understanding.
Conclusion
For viewers approaching *The Shape of Water* for the first time or returning to it, the film offers rewards that deepen with familiarity. Its examination of love beyond boundaries remains potent, its visual beauty undimmed, its performances as affecting as ever.
In an era when franchise filmmaking dominates the multiplex, del Toro’s deeply personal vision stands as evidence that original stories told with conviction can still find audiences and recognition. The film invites viewers to consider who society excludes, what we mean when we speak of humanity, and whether love might flourish in the most unexpected places””questions that remain as relevant as ever.
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