The Shape of Water (2017) on Netflix
R20172h 3mAdventureDramaFantasyRomanceSci-FiThriller
In 1962, mute janitor Elisa Esposito works nights at a secret Baltimore laboratory, where she visits the humanoid amphibian kept there. Colonel Richard Strickland wants it dissected for study.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.3/10480,415 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Baltimore, 1962. Elisa Esposito is mute and lives alone above a movie theater, working the night shift as a cleaner at a high-security government laboratory alongside her friend Zelda Fuller. A captured humanoid amphibian is brought to the facility, and Elisa begins slipping into his enclosure to feed him hard-boiled eggs, teach him sign language and play records. Colonel Richard Strickland, who lost two fingers to the creature, pushes to have it dissected for an edge in the Space Race. The scientist Robert Hoffstetler argues for keeping it alive to study further, while General Hoyt wants its body harvested for space travel technology. Fearing the creature will die, Elisa decides she must get him out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Shape of Water (2017)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Guillermo del Toro originally wrote Giles for Ian McKellen, drawing on McKellen's role as director James Whale in Gods and Monsters. When McKellen was unavailable, del Toro emailed Richard Jenkins, who took the part.
- Guillermo del Toro wrote the lead role for Sally Hawkins and pitched her the idea for The Shape of Water while he was intoxicated at the 2014 Golden Globes.
- The Amphibian Man's voice was built by supervising sound editor Nathan Robitaille, who blended his own vocalizations, various animal sounds and recordings of Guillermo del Toro breathing.
- The film's Orpheum theater is a composite of two different Toronto landmarks: its interior is the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, while its exterior is the facade of the Victorian Massey Hall nearby.
- The Shape of Water became only the second fantasy film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, following The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.
- It was the first Best Picture winner since Titanic in 1997 to take the top prize without also winning an acting or screenplay award, and the first since Platoon in 1986 to do so without winning any of its acting or screenplay nominations.
- Critic Rex Reed's one-star review drew backlash for calling Sally Hawkins's mute character "mentally handicapped" and for wrongly crediting actor Benicio del Toro, misspelled and misidentified as Spanish, as the film's director.
- Paul Zindel's estate sued Guillermo del Toro and producer Daniel Kraus for plagiarizing Zindel's 1969 story "Let Me Hear You Whisper"; a judge dismissed the case with prejudice, and in 2021 Zindel's son publicly withdrew the plagiarism claim.
