Those of you who have seen the movie "The Shape of Water" and loved it will have to forgive me. We just saw it tonight and are bewildered.
When I first read about this movie, I thought, "Oh, a fantasy. Not my thing." But then it kept getting all these rave reviews and awards, so I thought maybe I could suspend belief and go with it and see the magic and beauty others claimed it has.
It didn't work. At first I was intrigued, but the characters and the setting were confusing. Who were these people, what were their relationships, why were some portrayed as so good, while one in particular was so evil? Were they just caricatures? What was the purpose of the "monster", the aquatic creature from some South American river? Why were the Russians involved? It was a bit of a mess.
Some of these questions were sort of answered and I was going along with it all until, SPOILER ALERT, the sweet little mute girl falls in love with the "Creature From the Black Lagoon". Yes, I saw this movie in 1960 when I was in high school and it was being shown in installments in the auditorium at lunch time. It was hokey then.
OK, fine, she's being sweet to this tortured monster, but ....what?! She steals him, he ends up in her bathtub and they........have sex! Yep. That's where it lost me for sure.
There was a lot of violence after that. Happy ending? I don't know. Maybe. You have to decide for yourself. I didn't care.
Now, I really need to know. what did I miss? If you saw this movie and loved it, why?
Saw the movie yesterday. Did not love it. While the director did an outstanding job in mood creation and transitions, the evil guy was way too evil and you are correct in that the other characters were caricatures. The black working friend was the most subtle and realistic. I was disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI loved it. But then again, I didn't see it as a factual story, but an allegory for our times. It was a Beauty and the Beast fantasy and a monster movie mashed together. And the ending was so perfect that I left the theater smiling to think that the lovers lived happily ever after. But then again, I love science fiction and felt that the world created here was masterfully crafted so that I fell into it. There was nothing literal about it, just a strange love story.
ReplyDeleteI guess I fail to see any allegory, but instead a scrapbook of bits and pieces of life in 1960: Russian paranoia, old movies on TV, big fin cars, monster movies, Jim Crow, Harriet housewives in frilly aprons who know how to please their husbands, green jello, and a fantasy love story with added gratuitous sex and violence. But it certainly is lingering in my mind, and "what the heck?" images keep popping into my mind, like scratches on a neck = gill slits?
DeleteMy problem, perhaps, was I saw the ending pretty much by the middle of the movie. Seemed too much like other fantasy movies that have simplistic plots.
DeleteSome movies are like that. There are some distant inferences that we have to make. I miss them.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen it. Counting on reviews to make me decide if I want to. So far undecided.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it and not sure now I want to pay to watch it.
ReplyDeleteGeee... By reading the comments, I'm quite intrigued. We haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure we will sometime. Probably in DVD.
ReplyDeletenot my kind of movie, thanks for spoiler warning.
ReplyDeleteI read some reviews that said there was a lot of violence so we skipped it. Thanks for confirming we made the right choice.
ReplyDeleteWe had read some reviews and I decided that it was not something we were interested in. I mean, sex with a sea monster? No thank you. Give me romantic comedies and thrillers any day. BTW we saw The Commuter with Liam Neeson and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteSex in the tub...those were the days:)
ReplyDelete