Del Toro’s Water lacks true depth
Danish director Lone Scherfig ( An Education) once again proves a master of creating a sense of space and place. In this 2017 drama, wartime Britain is lovingly brought to life in all its stiff-upper-lip and danger-everynight glory. This is a film that skilfully manages to juxtapose broad humour with bleak drama, as our ‘‘heroes’’ attempt to use their typewriters and acting skills to lift a nation. Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin star. Shot in evocative black-andwhite, this Oscar-nominated 2015 Colombian film has echoes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and the works of Rolf de Heer, as Amazonian shaman Karamakae, the last of his people, assists two European scientists (on individual journeys, separated by 40 years) to locate a sacred healing plant. A provocative and compelling drama with a stunning sting in its tale. Like fellow recent documentaries on Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain, this 2017 movie aims to tell the tale of a troubled life through the artist’s own words and those of their nearest and dearest. Australianborn Ledger was a rising Hollywood star who was arguably in his best form when he died in early 2008 at the age of just 28. The Shape of Water (R16) 123 mins FANS of Pan’s Labyrinth (and maybe Pacific Rim and Hellboy?) will be excited about director Guillermo del Toro’s latest fantasy-fest: a love story between a mute cleaner and the sea creature imprisoned at the government facility where she works.
Del Toro’s film looks incredible with its gliding camerawork and gorgeous lighting, and if one is partial to whimsical heroines and vicious villains in an artful 1960s setting, then The Shape of Water will deliver.
But with a plot that lacks nuance or complexity, and a script that says much while meaning little, I was underwhelmed.
Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a plucky young woman who lives a life of contented, silent routine next door to the avuncular Giles (Richard Hawkins).
You don’t have to be odd to be mute, but if Hawkins
Despite the set-pieces’ beauty, the story shuffles predictably towards its conflict and conclusion.
( Paddington, Maudie) is doing it, you will be.
As much as I have criticised her overacting in the past, if anyone’s going to convey character without speaking then Hawkins is your actress.
Elisa’s world is disrupted one day when a mysterious ‘‘asset’’ is acquired and locked up cruelly by the exceptional Michael Shannon. Elisa falls into an enchantment, and together with her overly chatty fellow cleaner Zelda (Octavia Spencer, reliably entertaining in a stereotypical feisty-black-woman way), Elisa seeks to free the captured beast.
Del Toro has a history of making beautiful cinema, and Water’s principal charm lies in the details of the world he builds, where Elisa slips from sensible flats into red shoes to signify her burgeoning love and downtrodden people live in richly decorated apartments shrouded in rain.
The soundtrack mimics 2001’s genuinely delightful Ame´lie and the otherworldliness of the tale goes some way to mitigating a script which over-explains aspects of character we already get (OK, Shannon is terrifying!).
But despite the set-pieces’ beauty, the story shuffles predictably towards its conflict and conclusion. For those who want look and feel, this may be enough. - Sarah Watt