I Love You Fish Face: Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water

I know, I know. You've already heard about The Shape of Water (2018). It won 4 Oscars this year including Best Picture and has been the punchline to every possible fish sex joke that a late-night comedy writer could come up with. While you might say I'm late to the game, I like to think that I waited to see the movie once the hype cooled down. But warm or cold hype, this movie is worth soaking in.

Much has been made of the fish-out-of-water (literally) romance element of Guillermo del Toro's latest gem and rightly so. It's a beaut of a love story between "others" who don't belong in this world- but who do belong to each other. The remarkable acting from all the leads, the green-infused design, and Alexander Desplat's score are all beguiling, but there's another wonderful thematic structure in the movie that I am equally geeked about- the romance that del Toro has with the movies.

Shape is based on- or at the very least inspired by- a classic sci-fi movie character. While no direct mention is made, del Toro's Amphibian Man for all intents and purposes is The Creature from The Creature of the Black Lagoon (1954) and its sequels Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). 

Maybe all fish-men look alike (del Toro directed the same actor , Doug Jones, as walking fish dude hero Abe Sapien in Hellboy (2004)), but the design similarities between these two characters is more than coincidence. It's clearly del Toro's "what-if" scenario for the 1950's monster movie icon.

But wait, there's more! Elisa (the fearlessly naked and Oscar-nommed Sally Hawkins) literally lives over a second-run movie theater. Marquee letters spell-out the titles of movies that only a true cineaste would remember- The Story of Ruth (1960) and Pat Boone starrer Mardi Gras (1958).  Next door neighbor and friend Giles' (Richard Jenkins in another Oscar-nommed role) television is tuned to catch Hello Frisco (1943) with movie musical/gay icon Alice Faye crooning "You'll Never Know."

And where does the creature escape to after his horrific, yet hilarious encounter with one of Giles' housecats? Elisa finds him at the movies gazing up at the screen as the biblical epic about a woman who abandons her life for a new faith unfolds in front of an empty audience. When Elisa is finally able to express her love to her amphibious sweetheart, she does so in the magical form of a Hollywood musical number- imagine Ginger dancing next to a slimier Fred.

All of these references lead to a meta-cinematic experience where del Toro shows how we dream and communicate through the language of the movies- in a movie. It's that kind of thoughtful filmmaking that nabbed del Toro the Best Director Oscar and makes The Shape of Water so much more than a girl-meets-fish story.