The Shape of Water
Paranoid, government secret love may be the best kind of love - that is the shape of Guillermo del Toro’s latest, beautiful myth. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a woman without a voice, mopping the floors and bathrooms in a secret government lab in 1962. The cold war is icy - with the Russians man in outer space and missiles on Cuba putting the Americans G-men on the highest, high alert. Strickland (Michael Shannon) is the G-man in charge, and he kicks things into high gear by introducing the mysterious South American Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) to the lab. The Amphibian Man is a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon, E.T. and Star Man in film parlance. He looks creepy, but still, human enough for Elisa to fall for him. How she reaches out to him is simple and show us how ridiculously limited and unfortunately awkward our verbal language is in comparison. The rest of the supporting cast is fantastic, too. Richard Jenkins as Elisa’s sweet neighbor, Giles, is fun, sw...