curated: suddenly I’m a little worried about Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’…

by MaryAnn Johanson

Mon, Sep 18, 2017

11 comments

Don’t piss me off, del Toro…

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RogerBW

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 2:25pm

How the actor describes it isn’t necessarily how the director describes it. Still very cautiously optimistic here.

amanohyo

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 2:42pm

Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, monster fucks the girl. Del Toro’s movies are fun to look at, but the writing is a little too derivative and bland for me to ever feel really invested. However, if anyone can pull off convincingly falling in love with a monster, it’s Sally Hawkins, and Abe was the most interesting part of Hellboy which makes me think that there will be some weirdness to the movie beyond water is the essence of wetness perfume commercial sex. I hope Del Toro makes it work too – I’ve never seen Hawkins turn in a bad performance, and it has been a… challenging mating season for fish person.

lauriemann

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 7:50pm

If it’s consensual, and it sounds like it is…I don’t have a problem.

MaryAnn Johanson

reply to lauriemann

Tue, Sep 19, 2017 4:55pm

Consensuality isn’t the only issue. Her agency as a character matters too.

CarrieCC

reply to MaryAnn Johanson

Mon, Oct 16, 2017 4:31am

MaryAnn, could you define agency for me?

MaryAnn Johanson

reply to CarrieCC

Tue, Oct 17, 2017 1:02pm

There are numerous resources online that can explain this for you. Here’s a good one:

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/06/03/just-what-the-humping-heck-is-character-agency-anyway/

Tonio Kruger

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 8:47pm

Toro. Sounds like a load of bull.
–Roger Moore, Octopussy (1983)

But seriously, folks…

I’m not sure about this, either. Perhaps because my childhood memories of Creature from the Black Lagoon are different from del Toro’s.

I’ve had this movie in my head since I was 6, not as a story but as an idea. When I saw the creature swimming under Julie Adams [in 1954’s “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”], I thought three things: I thought, “Hubba-hubba.” I thought, “This is the most poetic thing I’ll ever see.” I was overwhelmed by the beauty. And the third thing I thought is, “I hope they end up together.”
–Guillermo del Toro, “Guillermo del Toro’s highly personal monster film ‘The Shape of Water’ speaks to ‘what I feel as an immigrant'”, Los Angeles Times, 090517

Then again the awkward way he handled the relationship between Hellboy and Liz Sherman in Hellboy II hardly gives me much reason for optimism.

Owen1120

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 9:52pm

I read in a review that the romance is really initiated by Hawkins.

Danielm80

reply to Owen1120

Mon, Sep 18, 2017 10:46pm

Yep, it will be like a Kevin James comedy or a Team Apatow production: The sexy woman really, really wants to sleep with the schlubby guy—or the sea monster.