The Shape of Water

2017
R
2h 3m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

454K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer1:49

Dark Fantasy Dark Romance Fairy Tale Drama Fantasy Romance Sci-Fi

At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

454K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,286

219

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 4 Oscars
- 138 wins & 350 nominations total

Photos443

+ 437

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List

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Director Guillermo del Toro said about Sally Hawkins, "Not only was she the first choice, she was the only choice. I wrote the movie for Sally. I wrote the movie for Michael [Shannon]. Sally is... I wanted the character of Elisa to be beautiful, in her own way, not in a way that is like a perfume commercial kind of way. That you could believe that this character, this woman would be sitting next to you on the bus. But at the same time she would have a luminosity, a beauty, almost magical, ethereal."

Goofs
After Richard Strickland's children leave to get on the school bus, Strickland's wife Elaine states she wants to have sex upstairs, but the establishing shot of their house a few seconds earlier does not have a second story.

Quotes
[last lines]
Giles: If I told you about her, what would I say? That they lived happily ever after? I believe they did. That they were in love? That they remained in love? I'm sure that's true. But when I think of her - of Elisa - the only thing that comes to mind is a poem, whispered by someone in love, hundreds of years ago: "Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love, It humbles my heart, For You are everywhere."

Crazy credits
The opening credits roll over footage of a flooded apartment.

Connections
Featured in FoundFlix: The Shape of Water (2017) Ending Explained + Analysis (2017)

Soundtracks
You'll Never Know
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Performed by Renée Fleming & The London Symphony Orchestra
Arranged & Conducted by Alexandre Desplat
Recorded & Mixed by Jonathan Allen at Studio de la Grande Armée, Paris
Assistant: Ludovick Tartavel
Piano: Frédéric Gaillardet
Double Bass: Riccardo Del Fra
Drums: Jeff Boudreaux (as Jeffrey Boudreaux)
Bass Flute: Alexandre Desplat
Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited
Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd.

User reviews1.7K

Review

Featured review

8/10

A Lagoon of Longing & Love...

It's a time when being different was discouraged, by how you looked, by how you hooked, by how you foraged, in a world of prejudice, the overwhelming emphasis, was to align, to toe the line, to be acknowledged. Elisa's mute, but she still has things to say, using Zelda as a surrogate airway, together they both clean, where there's things that go unseen, behind one doorway there's a place she likes to stay. In this place something's imprisoned and interned, Elisa shows it love, the tides begin to turn, a connection has been made, it's time to escape and evade, logistically that causes some concern.

Sally Hawkins is as spectacular as ever in an imaginative tale that reflects a world of the past, but not forgotten or disappeared (sadly).