A lush, melancholy fairy tale that blends romance, monster-movie imagery, and Cold War paranoia with striking visual confidence. It’s at its best when it leans into tenderness, texture, and outsider longing, even if the emotional beats feel familiar to some viewers.
The Shape of Water
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Fantasy
Fri · 2h 3m
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins
Overview
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.
Director
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins
Curator Review
Verdict
A lush, melancholy fairy tale that blends romance, monster-movie imagery, and Cold War paranoia with striking visual confidence. It’s at its best when it leans into tenderness, texture, and outsider longing, even if the emotional beats feel familiar to some viewers.
Best for
fans of romantic fantasy with a dark edge
viewers who like Guillermo del Toro’s creature-centered storytelling
people drawn to lush production design and practical effects
audiences who enjoy outsider-love stories and fairy-tale melancholy
Skip if
you want grounded realism
you dislike stylized melodrama
you need subtle, low-concept storytelling
you’re turned off by heightened genre blending or taboo romance
Overview
The Shape of Water is a beautifully made adult fairy tale, one that treats loneliness, desire, and empathy as the real special effects. Guillermo del Toro builds a world of damp corridors, saturated color, and tactile period detail, then fills it with characters who feel wounded, lonely, and strangely hopeful. Sally Hawkins gives the film its heart with a performance that is both delicate and forceful, while the creature design is among the most expressive in modern fantasy cinema.
Worth noting
What makes the film linger is its sincerity. It is unabashedly romantic, politically pointed, and committed to the idea that the “monster” is often the most humane presence in the room. The Cold War setting and villainy are broad, but they serve the story’s fable-like clarity rather than realism. For some viewers that emotional directness will feel transporting; for others, a little too neat.
Bottom line
Even so, the movie’s craftsmanship is undeniable. It moves with the confidence of a classic studio fantasy filtered through a modern sensibility, balancing tenderness, danger, and a touch of grotesquerie. If you respond to films that turn outsiderhood into myth, this is one of the more memorable examples of the last decade.
Top Letterboxd reviews
georgina (5★) · 14642 likes
elisa’s friends didn’t kinkshame her at all even when she literally fucked a fish and that’s the kind of love and support I need in my life
fran hoepfner (3.5★) · 10459 likes
someone has finally dared to ask "what if Lilo & Stitch was rated R?"
KYK (3★) · 8039 likes
dude got out of the bath and went straight to the movies by himself, soaking wet and naked. gotta respect it.
guilherme (4.5★) · 7663 likes
the water had a shape and it was dick
Kait (5★) · 5780 likes
never trust a man who doesn’t wash his hands after he takes a piss
Themes
outsider romance, humanity vs monstrosity, Cold War paranoia, loneliness and connection, empathy and acceptance, fairy-tale fantasy, state violence and oppression, muted communication
Topics
romantic fantasy, dark fairy tale, Cold War, monster romance, melancholic, lush production design, practical effects, outsider story, adult fantasy, period drama