Something Aquatic
I saw “The Shape of Water” this evening. At a loose end and thought I’d see what was on at the local cinema.
Our local tends to favour the mass-market Hollywood stuff - super-heroes, gangster movies, action (usually gratuitously violent). With Oscars in the air, this diet thankfully gets a bit of variety. A couple of the other movies I was interested in aren’t on at the moment, or I’d need to travel an hour to see them elsewhere.
Having seen and appreciated “Pan’s Labyrinth” I thought del Toro’s latest offering would be worth the visit. The reviews were, on the whole, very good.
I’d seen Oscar-winning “Moonlight” here last year in a thinly attended auditorium and, as expected, this film didn’t really appeal to the local mass audience either. It’s the first weekend of opening here, and there were perhaps 30 in attendance.
Compared to Pan’s Labyrinth this film has some similarly bizarre twists, an other-worldly creature, and fable-like moments. The storyline is a good deal lighter, with humorous moments, yet interjected with incidents of violence - perhaps not as gruelling as “Labyrinth” but then that film was set in a war.
The allegories and political messages are all in plain sight here, and the characters more clearly righteous or evil, and I’m guessing this film won’t linger in my memories and leave me questioning meanings in the way that Pan’s Labyrinth did. Nevertheless, a good film with some very powerful performances (and wonderful detailing in the lead amphibian!). If you prefer something a bit more cerebral than Fast and Furious, give this one a try.
Our local tends to favour the mass-market Hollywood stuff - super-heroes, gangster movies, action (usually gratuitously violent). With Oscars in the air, this diet thankfully gets a bit of variety. A couple of the other movies I was interested in aren’t on at the moment, or I’d need to travel an hour to see them elsewhere.
Having seen and appreciated “Pan’s Labyrinth” I thought del Toro’s latest offering would be worth the visit. The reviews were, on the whole, very good.
I’d seen Oscar-winning “Moonlight” here last year in a thinly attended auditorium and, as expected, this film didn’t really appeal to the local mass audience either. It’s the first weekend of opening here, and there were perhaps 30 in attendance.
Compared to Pan’s Labyrinth this film has some similarly bizarre twists, an other-worldly creature, and fable-like moments. The storyline is a good deal lighter, with humorous moments, yet interjected with incidents of violence - perhaps not as gruelling as “Labyrinth” but then that film was set in a war.
The allegories and political messages are all in plain sight here, and the characters more clearly righteous or evil, and I’m guessing this film won’t linger in my memories and leave me questioning meanings in the way that Pan’s Labyrinth did. Nevertheless, a good film with some very powerful performances (and wonderful detailing in the lead amphibian!). If you prefer something a bit more cerebral than Fast and Furious, give this one a try.