The Shape of Water

"A fairy tale for troubled times."

2017 2h 3m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 13,126

DramaFantasyRomance

Synopsis

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An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.

“A fairy tale for troubled times.”

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Cast

Sally Hawkins
Elisa Esposito
Michael Shannon
Richard Strickland
Richard Jenkins
Giles
Octavia Spencer
Zelda Fuller
Michael Stuhlbarg
Dr. Robert Hoffstetler
Doug Jones
Amphibian Man
David Hewlett
Fleming
Nick Searcy
General Hoyt

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writers: Vanessa Taylor, Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Toro
Languages: English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $195M — a 10.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, shot by Dan Laustsen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sidney Wolinsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A fairy tale for troubled times.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Guillermo del Toro directs. Dan Laustsen behind the camera. Alexandre Desplat scores. Sidney Wolinsky cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $195M — a 10.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 9 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.
4Directed by Guillermo del Toro, shot by Dan Laustsen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Sidney Wolinsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "A fairy tale for troubled times.".
9IMDB entry: tt5580390 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1013,126 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
11Classified under 19 themes, including "government", "fairy tale", "cold war", "supernatural".

The technical file

Cinematography: Dan Laustsen
Original score: Alexandre Desplat
Editing: Sidney Wolinsky
Production design: Paul D. Austerberry
Costume design: Luis Sequeira
Makeup / hair: Kristin Wayne
VFX supervisor: Dennis Berardi
Sound: Christian T. Cooke
Stunt coordinator: Jean Frenette
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $19,500,000
Box office: $195,300,000
Return: 1002% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Shape of Water (2017)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Production Design
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
Academy Award for Best Original Score
Golden Lion
Academy Award for Best Director
Academy Award for Best Picture

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Guillermo del Toro

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-01-25
★ 7/10
Not just a love letter to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but to cinema itself. Del Toro's The Shape of Water is the "Who is the real monster?" question taken to the nth degree, with some some fascinating side-concepts that are explored just enough to be worthwhile. At the end of the day The Shape of Water, at its most stripped back, is a movie about fucking a fish. But it's the kind of movie about fucking a fish that should also probably win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time.
tmdb476334912018-04-07
★ 7/10
GDT's first truly great flick. The R-Rated Family Movie schtick always came off as silly or had a story too dull to carry its own weight. Characters and morality are two dimensional; the world functions via cartoon logic. But the love story here is precious. Could be argued it's an apologist film for zoophilia, considering the amphibian shows little intelligence beyond that of a dog.
John Chard2018-12-23
★ 6/10
Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me! Guillermo del Toro directs and co-writes with Vanessa Taylor what would turn out to be the Best Picture Academy Award Winner for 2017. A much loved film that's not without dissention in certain quarters, it's a picture that warrants dissention but it should be noted that just because someone doesn't like it, that doesn't make it a bad film. I'm certainly in the camp that finds it over praised, even annoyingly disappointing, whilst appreciating many of the facets within its production. Story in simple terms is a Beauty and the Beast like fable where Sally Hawkins' mute cleaning lady Elisa Esposito falls in love with a captured Amphibian Man. Amphibian Man is known by the government types as The Asset, and as the Cold War rises and 60s paranoia takes a hold, the American big wigs want to vivisect the special species to learn from it. Elisa, after courting "The Asset", enlists the help of close friends and plots to free the creature from its captivity in the underground medical bunker labyrinth place. Now as simple as that sounds, there is more to it than that, del Toro and Taylor whilst enveloping the pic in a fantasy realm feel, ensure messages are thrust hard at the viewers. Be it the racial disharmony, the quest for different walks of life finding love with each other, the cry for humans to stop being bad and killing things because they don't understand them, torture is evil and etc etc. It's all right there in your face and we get it. So plot maybe simple but for sure there's a lot being said in the narrative. Yet as great as it looks, and it's superbly acted by Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer, it just to me loses its way come the mid-point, getting daft and even getting a little icky into the bargain. I have no problem with improbabilities and outrageous contrivances here, this is del Toro painting one of his fantastical worlds - only on Earth in the early 60s! But the pay off is poor, hinging on a twist that's not only ridiculous, but insulting as well because otherwise the pic would be very troubling indeed. No art deco eye orgasms or vibrant characterisations can compensate for a film that runs out of steam. That said, I was glad to have watched it, there's even a possibility I could return to it in the future - this is very good film making. But it's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination and not for the first time in the Academy's long history, many are baffled by their choice of Best Picture winner. 6/10