The Shape of Water (2017) – The Best Film of the Year and a Fairytale Love Story

 

In 2017, several films stood out and were considered among the best. I had three films in particular on my watchlist from the start. First, I watched "Get Out," and it was definitely a great production. Then, I watched "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," and it certainly met expectations. Finally, it was time for the film that won "Best Picture" at the Oscars: The Shape of Water (2017).

Perhaps some believe the Oscar should have gone to "Three Billboards..." But I think The Shape of Water deserved the award for its subject matter, narrative, production, and visuals. Above all, I found the visual aspect of the film very strong. The creation of this creature in particular is so beautiful it deserves applause. If you just watch the drawing of the creature and the behind-the-scenes footage of the costume making, you'll see the immense effort that went into it.

Drawing and making such a creature is not easy either. In behind-the-scenes footage, director Guillermo del Toro describes the kind of creature he envisioned, and this sentence is very important: "I want a creature that you can fall in love with." On the one hand, the word "creature" is always used negatively, as something other and feared. However, the creature here needs to be both like a real creature and possess a tenderness that the main character can fall in love with. And Guillermo del Toro succeeded in doing just that.

Del Toro is, of course, a director of these kinds of films and creatures. We know him from films like Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy (2004), and Pacific Rim (2013) . This film was also inspired by his childhood memories of watching Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and wanting the creature and the woman to end up together .

The Plot: A Fairytale in Cold War Baltimore

Baltimore, USA, 1962. A secret government facility. The film begins with the daily life of a woman working there who has a speech impediment. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) cannot speak due to an injury she received as a baby, but she can hear. In her dreams and fantasies, there's always a world of water .

One day, a creature captured in the Amazon—considered a god by the locals—is brought to this military facility. It's an amphibian resembling a human, played by Doug Jones in a stunning costume and makeup performance . There are three different approaches to this creature at the facility:

Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) , the facility's director, sees the creature as a monster and constantly tortures it. What he's trying to gain from torturing a creature that can't speak is unclear—it's about power and control.

Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) has a different approach. A scientist who is secretly a Soviet spy named Dimitri Mosenkov, he approaches the creature with compassion, but his primary goal is to use its characteristics for scientific purposes, especially for Soviet interests.

For Elisa, a cleaning lady with a speech impediment, this creature means something completely different. Initially, neither of them can speak. However, she soon realizes that even though the creature can't speak, it's intelligent and can learn sign language like herself. She brings it food, plays music for it, and a bond forms between them. A love blossoms .

The Fairytale Atmosphere

Like in fairy tales, an unprecedented bond and emotions emerge between the "ugly" and the "beautiful" in this film, between a creature and a human. The film's production style, presentation, and music—by Alexandre Desplat—create a truly fairytale atmosphere . The colors, the lighting, the way water is filmed—everything feels magical yet grounded in the gritty reality of 1960s Cold War America.

Elisa's friends also become part of the story. Giles (Richard Jenkins) , her closeted gay neighbor, and Zelda (Octavia Spencer) , her loyal co-worker, help her in the dangerous plan to save the creature . Each of them represents outsiders in their own way—people who understand what it means to be different.

The Conflict: Saving the Creature

Of course, the viewer expects this love to last. But one day, the military regime, losing patience, decides to examine the creature's insides to unravel its secrets. In other words, they intend to kill it . Meanwhile, the Soviets decide either to capture the creature or kill it to prevent it from falling into US hands.

From this point on, everything rests on Elisa, the mute cleaning lady, and her few friends. Will she be able to muster the courage to save the creature she loves? The answer is both heartbreaking and beautiful.

The Performances: A Silent Masterpiece

Sally Hawkins delivers an absolutely astonishing performance. Without speaking a single word, she conveys every emotion—loneliness, longing, joy, fear, and fierce determination. Del Toro wrote the script with her in mind and pitched the idea to her while he was intoxicated at the 2014 Golden Globes . She prepared by watching silent comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel to learn how to communicate without dialogue.

Doug Jones is equally remarkable as the Amphibian Man. Having collaborated with del Toro on Mimic, Hellboy, and Pan's Labyrinth, Jones brought both animalistic movement and regal grace to the character. Del Toro told him to make the creature "animalistic, but royal and regal" .

The Themes: Love, Otherness, and Hope

This film is about so much more than a woman falling in love with a fish-man. It's about demonizing "the other" —how society fears and hates what it doesn't understand. Del Toro placed the story in 1962 specifically to create distance: "if I say once upon a time in 1962, it becomes a fairy tale for troubled times. People can lower their guard a little bit more and listen to the story and listen to the characters and talk about the issues, rather than the circumstances of the issues" .

It's also about found family. Elisa has no blood relatives, but Giles and Zelda become her family. They risk everything to help her because they love her.

And ultimately, it's about hope. In a world full of cruelty, prejudice, and power, love can still win. The film's ending is ambiguous yet beautiful, suggesting that Elisa found her place—in the water, with the creature.

The Ratings and Awards

• IMDb: 7.3/10 (from over 275,000 users) 
• Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (from over 450 reviews) 
• Metacritic: 87/100 
• Budget: $19.5 million 
• Box Office: $195.2 million worldwide 

The film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards—the most of any film that year—and won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Guillermo del Toro . It also won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival . At the Golden Globes, it won Best Director and Best Original Score.

Final Verdict: A Modern Fairytale for Troubled Times

My rating: 10/10. The Shape of Water is a masterpiece. It's visually stunning, emotionally powerful, and thematically rich. It proves that love has no shape, no form, no boundaries. It can exist anywhere—even between a mute woman and an amphibian creature from the Amazon.

This is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll. It's a fairytale for adults, a romance for cynics, and a reminder that the most beautiful things in life are often the strangest.

Have you seen The Shape of Water? Do you think it deserved the Oscar for Best Picture, or should it have gone to Three Billboards? Let me know in the comments!

And suggest a movie for my next review! I'm in the mood for another visually stunning fantasy film.

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