A wonder to behold

Navnee Likhi

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Award-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is set in 1962 Cold War era. It centres on a lonely mute woman Elisa Esposito, who works as a cleaner at a secret high security laboratory located in the aerospace research centre in Baltimore. Here Elisa befriends a captured amphibian creature, falls in love with it and eventually plans to free him in water. 

Shot in slow motion, The Shape of Water is a wondrous cinematic experience. Using the dry for wet technique, the director has crafted the opening scenes of the movie as if these take place under water. He filled the stage with smoke and used lights caustics to give the effect of water. Dan Lausten’s scintillating cinematography and Paul D. Austerberry’s aesthetic production style with minute details lend magic to the film. The unique presentation, pacing and endearing humanity of the film is complemented by Alexandre Desplat’s music.

The movie opens with a shot of a hallway of an apartment submerged under water, bathed in mossy green light. Inside is a woman levitating above a couch. An alarm clock, a record player and picture frames float around her in harmony. A background voiceover narrates, “If I spoke about it, what would I tell you about a princess without voice?” The opening scene seems to weave in a fantastical whole, making it appear like an underwater ballet.

Elisa and her African American friend and co-worker Zelda Fuller, also her interpreter, follow their daily routine of cleaning the labs. Once during Elisa’s night shift, a vessel is brought into the facility. The vessel contains a manlike creature. Her superior, a vicious government agent, Colonel Richard Strickland names the creature Asset. Asset is a fish-like humanoid with blue-scales, a spiky spine and webbed hands. Seeking to exploit the creature for advantages in space race against the Russians, General Hoyt orders Strickland to vivisect the creature. Meanwhile, Elisa sneaks into the lab and feeds the creature eggs, teaches him sign language and plays jazz music from her portable music player. The two form a tender bond and enjoy the rhythm of music.

Back in her apartment, she speaks in sign language to her visiting neighbour Giles, “He looks at me, he doesn’t know I am incomplete, he sees me as I am”. At its core, The Shape of Water is a story about loneliness of being the other. Its characters — the physically challenged orphan woman Elisa, the creature Asset,   victim of racism Zelda, and a nervous illustrator Giles — are all captivating. Each of these characters is shown both literally and metaphorically for being who they are. They exist on the fringes of society which looks and loves differently. How these characters transcend prejudices to find strength, love and connection makes it an interesting watch. 

Elisa is fearful of Strickland’s plan to torture the creature and seeks Giles’ help. Zelda, too, joins reluctantly to help the creature escape. Elisa sees no difference between herself and the creature as they both are individuals without voice. Scientist Robert Hoffstetler is ordered by his Soviet spymaster to give poison to the creature to prevent Americans from advancing in their scientific space research mission. But Robert wants to study the creature, which was found in the Amazon, where the natives bowed to the power of his species. He feels the creature is intelligent and can communicate. He comes to know of Elisa’s plan to free the creature and offers help. Elisa and Giles initiate the plan by turning the cameras off the enclosure. Elisa sneaks Asset in a laundry bag and wheels it away while Giles waits by the loading dock. Meanwhile, Strickland becomes suspicious and goes after them, not exactly knowing who is taking Asset. Elisa gets inside the van and smuggles the creature while Giles drives away, wrecking Strickland’s car.

Elisa brings Asset to her apartment and keeps it in a bathtub filled with water and chemicals that Hoffestetler had given her. Realising the amphibian man cannot remain in the apartment for longer time she plans his release into a canal within few days and marks the date on the calendar. As she goes to work the following night Strickland interrogates her and Zelda. While Giles tends to Asset, he falls asleep. Asset escapes from the bathtub, slashes Giles arm with his webbed hands. Giles informs Elisa and as she rushes back to look for the creature. She finds him in a movie theatre located beneath the apartment and takes him back. As Asset touches Giles arm, it heals his wounds. Elisa floods the bathroom with the water so that they can swim together. Soon she realises that she is running short of water conditioning chemicals. The creature’s fish scales start peeling off and she decides to release him in canal.

Meanwhile, Strickland kills the Soviet spymaster before he shoots Hoffstetler. Strickland tortures Hoffstetler to extract information about Asset. He laughs at him and says, “No names, no ranks just clean”, hinting at Elisa and Zelda and he dies from his wounds. Strickland searches Elisa’s apartment and finds a calendar with a date marked on the calendar but not revealing where she is taking Asset. Elisa and Giles reach the canal and bid farewell to Asset. He talks in sign language to Elisa, “Me and, you together forever”. Strickland reaches the canal and injures Giles and shoots Elisa and Asset. The cops too reach, along with Zelda. Asset takes Elisa’s hand and jumps into the canal, where he holds her and transforms the scars on her neck into gills. 

The movie starts under water and ends underwater. As Elisa, Sally Hawkins carries every scene in the film with tender emotional transparency. In the look of an amphibian man, Dough Jones is primal and convincing.