92% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas
Watch it if you: Are a fan of Guillermo del Toro;
Want to see a mysterious and dark modern day fairytale;
Are after a change in tone for movies and are looking for something different and unique;
Want to see a visually beautiful and artsy movie
A mute cleaning lady discovers a captive amphibian creature.
I fairly recently watched Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and thought it was a great film by Guillermo del Toro, so I was excited to see this film too. It looked like such a ridiculous and unique concept that I was really excited to see it even just after the first trailer. And del Toro does another great job, and no wonder it's deserving of so many awards.
Firstly, this entire movie has such an amazing, ethereal, fantasy-like feel to it. Right from the start, the beautiful opening shot leaves you mesmerised, since it looks really stunning and really wondrously mysterious and intriguing. It felt like a dark fairytale and I absolutely loved that. It sort of brings out the inner child in you because it creates this feeling of wonder and amazement at what you're seeing.
And this feeling of wonder is carried through the entire film through Sally Hawkins, who is the standout in this film. She is phenomenal in this, playing a mute woman who's able to express herself so perfectly. Her sense of wonder is so innocent and childlike, her sadness is so heartbreaking, and she doesn't even need to speak for you to understand every single thing she's thinking.
One thing, though, is that I really would have liked for them to explore more of the relationship between Eliza (the mute lady) and the amphibian man.
Don't get me wrong, the film is really good, but for the first half of the film, I thought it was going to possibly be my favourite film of the year. I thought, damn this is going to be a must see for everyone!
But as the film progressed, it went a little down hill, particularly towards the end.
I think it really would have helped if they didn't rush through Eliza and the amphibian man getting to know each other, it would have been a better film if we saw their relationship develop slowly, rather than really quickly and all at once like it did in the film.
I also think the film was kind of messy going from character to character. It made sense that the film would want to elaborate on each character so you understood their thought process and their intentions, but sometimes it just got messy.
Don't get me wrong, though, the entire cast was great.
I loved Michael Shannon in particular; he is a fantastic villainous actor. I loved him in Nocturnal Animals, and in this film he really brought it in every scene he was in. He was this evil corporate guy that really took matters into his own hands and didn't see this amphibian man as a living being at all.
The amphibian man himself was stunning. And it wasn't CGI. They actually got Doug Jones to cover himself in prosthetics and make up, and he actually looked so amazing. He looked very ethereal and magical, and it was stunning to watch him move and act along with Sally Hawkins, since they were both voiceless characters. You could really see how characters in this film would be entranced by this amphibious creature, even to the point of calling him 'beautiful'.
The way the film is done also makes you feel like you're actually underwater, mainly because of the dark, slightly green, colour palette throughout the film.
I also loved the score in this movie. Right at the beginning, it was so perfect in taking you out of the real world and placing you within this fantastical world. It was just the right touch of whimsical to make you feel like this was a fantasy, but it could have still happened in this world of ours.
I'm so glad this movie got so many Oscar nominations, and I'll be so happy if Sally Hawkins takes home Best Actress. The whole cast was great though, and the cinematography was really brilliant although I do hope Blade Runner 2049 (2017) gets Best Cinematography. The film does go downhill towards the end but it still is overall a really unique and wonderful film to watch. It's a great story about people who don't fit in to normal society, and about finding your humanity and sense of meaning in life. It's a magical fantasy that sometimes seems ridiculous but it's portrayed in such a real way that you can't help but feel a little wholesome watching it.
A few side notes:
- I loved how the colour palette was really dark and green, but Eliza slowly started introducing red into her wardrobe the happier and more fulfilled she became.
- That poem at the end, part of which is the title of this blog post, was so beautiful.
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