The Shape of Mainstream Nonsense (a review of the Shape of Water).
Fascinating. So many people love The Shape of Water. I -very much- did not. I was expecting it to pull at the corners of my imagination; to depict the possibilities of accessing wisdom and knowledge from an amphibious God.
Instead, that ‘God’ is almost exactly a man - albeit one with gills - who, once again, validates the (already wonderful and strong) central woman’s existence.
That this spirited and remarkable woman ‘Elisa’, (skillfully brought to life by Sally Hawkins), failing to be ‘seen’ or ‘heard’ by (heterosexual) men, would more likely have her needs met by a green fish with a penis than finding love and sexual pleasure in the arms of, for example, another woman, seems to be an ironically typical (unrealistic and untrue), notion! For all the Bond-style (boring!) fighting between the Russians and Americans over the potential for dissecting this creature to learn more from it, not even the main protagonists seem to grasp anything more about life from this intelligent species.
The main protagonist is so busy teaching this creature how to literally suck eggs and how to have inter-species sex (how convenient they are able to manage this! I thought this was such a typical male directorial addition- of course we have to explore the penis, above all, of this God/ species!) that she blocks the audience’s view of what makes this creature tick and how it sees the world and us. Thus, an opportunity for seeing the ourselves and the human condition from any refreshing viewpoint is unfortunately missed.
To add salt to the wound, our erstwhile resourceful and independent female hero then is expected to leave this world (in the arms of the green fish/penis) to have her needs met. Surely that’s ironically lacking the imagination the movie has been so lauded for?
Now, it is possible that Elisa is in fact a fish-type creature herself (she has the ‘scars’ in the shape of gills, she was found by a river as a baby, she has an affinity with water) and so she simply returns to her true ‘nature’ by returning to the green fish with the penis.. but then, how does this film answer questions for us in the real world and for people who are not heard or have not been heard in mainstream culture?
Must we find our fish to swim with? Or should we, in fact, tackle the structures holding us back because, inn lieu of a canal to escape into that won’t drown us (mental illness and suicide of course being the avenues historically recommended for non-conforming women) are we ever going to be able to swim without facing the problem head on? Isn’t this the whole point of #metoo? Where is everyone going with this movie?! Not that many Hollywood films manage to make a useful point but the reviews are just so overwhelmingly positive for this movie, I have taken umbrage.
An opportunity to fathom what the indigenous Amazonians understand/understood that our modern macho/Bond world does not, was also missed. Admittedly, the movie could not go everywhere. Instead, it goes nowhere new.
For example, the gayness of Elisa’s best friend, Giles (played by Richard Jenkins) as in nearly all mainstream movies, must also render the rest of his existence sad (although he too is momentarily delighted by the healing powers of the green fish with the handy penis). Although gay lives had to be lived underground in the period this movie represents, just as mute and deaf people and women still must fight to be heard, there would also be unseen worlds where they WOULD live and love, especially for these two people of exceptional creativity, agency and love.
That this movie doesn’t really recognise these heroes’ agency is another pointer to its mainstream blandness. It is asking for credits for featuring a gay man and a mute woman without learning their realities. I give credit for the opportunity this movie has provided to criticise these perspectives of under- represented voices because of course, we are lacking these leads in the mainstream in the first place and clearly there are some good intentions in this movie.
In the end though, the question ‘what do we learn from this movie?’ is what I’m left with banging about my brain. That Bond-style movies can enter a science fiction realm and star diverse women? Well yes, that could be a good thing but, notwithstanding the incredible and refreshing female lead, I’ve expected too much from this Oscar-studded film in which a delicious opportunity for capturing the world from a less myopic, cis and gendered viewpoint, somehow slipped out of its wet hands.
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