The Shape Of Water (2017)

[ALenore]

I just both saw the movie and read the book (I didn't even realize there was a book, it came out concurrently with the movie).  I liked the book better than the movie.  There was a lot more background about Elisa, how she was abused in the orphanage she grew up in.

Strickland's (Michael Shannon's) wife was much more of a character, she was a frustrated housewife who resented when her husband came back from his year and a half long expedition to capture the creature and he tried to control her. She secretly gets a job in the ad agency Giles works for, and lets Giles know when his client is screwing him over.  She flees with her children towards the end of the book.  

Zelda also had a more active role in the end.  She rescues Giles, who has been pushed in the water by Strickland, then rams the end of a paintbrush in Strickland's foot, which distracts him when he is shooting Eliza.

 The creature does eat one of Gile's cats, but we hear his thoughts as he kills it, and he considers the cat to be "offering" itself to him.   Giles understands what happened, knowing that the creature has no idea of the concept of pets.  

Eliza's name was given to her the orphanage, it doesn't seem she was supposed to be Hispanic.  

There was no song and dance sequence in the book at all, she was a big movie fan, and wound up living in the apartment over the movie theater that she would sneak into as a teenager.  

The scene in the water at the end of the book is pretty much the same, Elisa finds out she can somehow breathe underwater and her gills open up.  

In the book, we know that Giles is gay because we hear his thoughts as he interacts with the waiter at the diner, in the movie it is implied by all the key lime pies he has stored in his refrigerator.  

[Bruinsfan]

That moment when he touches the waiter's hand and the guy's reaction to it makes it pretty clear about Giles.

[methodwriter85]

On ‎10‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 1:08 PM, Bruinsfan said:

That moment when he touches the waiter's hand and the guy's reaction to it makes it pretty clear about Giles.

Yeah, I don't really see how that could be even remotely ambiguous. Even today, a guy is not going to touch a guy's hand like that if it's a platonic gesture, especially if they're not good friends.

I did like how that was kind of a mini-version of "Don't judge a book by it's cover", as the waiter looks nice on the outside but it turns out he's pretty ugly on the inside.

Edited October 6, 2018 by methodwriter85

[Bruinsfan]

True, although to be fair back in the time of the film's setting a LOT of guys would have reacted fairly poorly to it.

[methodwriter85]

I mean, he was also pretty rude to the black couple that wanted to eat there. Baltimore still had segregation but it wasn't quite the Deep South.

[AuntiePam]

On 2/4/2018 at 4:12 PM, Milburn Stone said:

Something that was a real bug for me about this movie was the same thing that for other people is a feature. I realize that. But nevertheless, I'm looking at the creature, and I'm going, "Come on. You gotta be forkin' kidding me. That's The Creature from the Black Lagoon! They couldn't come up with anything better than that?" But, like I say, some see that as a feature, because the movie, on some level, is actually all about movies, and the choice to basically make the guy The Creature from the Black Lagoon can be seen as intentional rather than as a shocking and shameful failure of creative resources. I just didn't see it that way.

Didn't del Toro say that his inspiration was the Creature from the Black Lagoon -- specifically, the scene where the Creature is swimming with Julie Adams.  Maybe not del Toro, but someone said this, someone involved with the movie, on one of the late night talk shows.

Everything about this movie was so fantastical, almost an alternate reality.  The 50's-60's look, right down to Michael Shannon's wife with her blonde flip hairdo, the full-skirted house dress, and the green jello parfait -- she was right out of those 50's recipe websites.  Well, except for the part where she flipped out a boob for some morning whoopie.  And was there a connection between Giles' green jello, the green jello look of the key lime pie (key lime pie doesn't look like that) and the wife's green parfait? 

As a kid who used to fantasize about filling the basement with water so I'd have an indoor swimming pool, I loved the scene in Elise's bathroom.  Totally unrealistic, but so lovely.

I liked that we had a good amount of time with these folks after rescuing the creature.  Was surprised that Giles adjusted so well to everything, since I thought at the beginning that he and Elise were lovers.  They weren't, were they?  (I missed the first few minutes of the movie.)

No surprises for me -- I fully expected Elise and the creature to end up together.  It was telegraphed that she'd be able to adapt to life in water -- those scars hid gills, or the potential for gills.

Finally, how do they do those underwater scenes?  I grew up in the 50's, where you could sometimes see the zipper in the monster's suit, so these special effects are a wonder to me.

ETA: Loved that Octavia's character knew immediately that Elise and the creature were getting it on.  Elise had that look -- it's impossible to hide from another woman.

Edited November 26, 2018 by AuntiePam

[ooh.boo]

On 3/16/2018 at 9:52 AM, aradia22 said:

I am now convinced some internet smart-ass will write an article or make a video with a theory about how the Amphibian Man was mind-controlling him into being understanding. 

At least as far as Disney goes, I get it. Because it looks like a cute underbite but there's a whole mess of fangs in there. And also the bestiality thing. I still haven't watched the new movie with Emma Watson but seeing a picture, it feels like less of a problem there.

Insert lame joke here about black people generally not starring in movies where they bought a haunted house or 127 Hours/avalanche survival scenarios because they don't do stupid things like that. But I think Octavia Spencer's character, while sympathetic to the creature, would have never taken a chance like that. Speaking of POC in movies, I was curious how many people pick up on the fact that her name is Elisa Esposito and she's most likely supposed to be a POC. Sally Hawkins is Irish Catholic but I didn't really see anyone making a fuss about the role being white-washed. And in her behavior towards Michael Shannon, she displays a kind of fearlessness that almost feels like privilege. 

Her name was Esposito because she was found by the river.