Friday 20 April 2018

Movie Review: The Shape of Water (2017)



When my boyfriend came up to me after having just seen this movie and started talking it, I thought that it had all the potential for a post here. I suggested him so and he accepted the challenge! Despite the fact that I'm in Berlin (do expect a post about the trip very soon), I present you his review of The Shape of Water (2017), a film that won 4 Oscars and 9 nominations. I would like to previously advice you that he didn't have the patience to watch the whole movie, jumped several parts and the review is slightly PG-13.

“The Shape of Water (2017) is a movie that doesn't deceive the viewer. The movie poster shows kind of salmon with human limbs clinging to a woman, and that's what this movie is all about: the love story between a grown-up fish and a lady with not so many words.

The movie begins by showing us any US military facility where a man who looks like a fish, or a fish that looks like a man, or something like that... probably a fish that always wanted to be a man, and now, with a more transgender friendly society, has decided to step out of the closet. The reason why this fish appears to be taken to the military base isn't well understood. He appears and there we have it, without warning, being dragged with some grunts. It was probably caught in some lake or river. Unfortunately, life's like this sometimes. A person spends money on good bait, and then instead of fishing for a beautiful trout, it comes up with a fish with legs, arms and a mustache.

Throughout the movie, the man/fish isn't well received by some sort of FBI store manager who works at those facilities. As soon as he sets his sights on the transfish, he's suddenly reluctant, and that's the motto of the rest of the film: The inspector trying to kill the hairy sargo. I didn't get the reason for this hatred on the inspector's side, perhaps it's just because he's someone who didn't tolerate the stink of fish.

I must add that in the middle of it all a mute maid appears who, and this is the point that must be stressed: falls in love with the fish ... and decides to have sex with him. Why, her reasons, and, more importantly, why the need to present us with this sample of XXX subordinate to fish farming isn't well understood. However, it should be mentioned this same lady is indeed a peculiar person from a sexual point of view. At the beginning of the film, the director decides to show us twice the lady masturbating in the bathtub. So far nothing against that, and depending on the sexyness of the actress, I even support it. However, there is a curious detail: she always times her masturbation with one of those egg-shaped timers that people use to cook. Why? No idea. Maybe she's a very organized person who plans her time well. Maybe not. Maybe she's a lady who has always wanted to set a record of reaching the orgasm and enter the Guiness. Maybe not. There's some reason behind this, and this is the great and fundamental question that remains unanswered about this film.

In the end, the mute maid tries to save the fish. Both end at the bottom of the river like a kind of Romeo and Juliet but with more scales and gills.

Final Note: I didn't like it. I found it boring, with little development and too predictable. 4 out of 10.

It seems to me, therefore, that this film is a second Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), a film that also received 4 Oscars and 5 nominations but that I couldn't at all undestrand what it is that people saw about it. One thing is certain: I'm not at all interested in watching The Shape of Water. And you, have you watched it? Do you have the same opinion as my boyfriend?

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