Fans of del Toro have been looking forward to this one for a while, and rightfully so. I went out and saw this on the day of release and was delighted.

Mr del Toro is a master storyteller and The Shape Of Water was indeed a complex and beautiful story. As with the more famous Hell Boy, an underlying theme was what it means to be human.

There were great performances from the cast, especially Sally Hawkins. She brought so much humanity to a type of character that would normally be relegated to a token afterthought. She played the most relateable female character I have seen in a long time. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between her and her neighbour, played by Richard Jenkins.

One more thing I wanted to mention was the use of symbolism, especially in relation to Michael Shannon’s character and his hands. There is a scene where he washes his hands before urinating, but not after. When prompted by the cleaners in the washroom, he says when a man washes his hands says a lot about him. Later on, his wife suggests he washes his hands and come upstairs to have sex. When the amphibious creature bites off two of his fingers, this represents the beginning of his downfall. The doctors are unable to successfully reattach them and they blacken and rot throughout the film, essentially mirroring the deterioration of his character.

Anyway this was a very enjoyable movie, definitely up to the standards of what we have come to expect from Guillermo del Toro. If you have been on the fence, go see it!