Guillermo del Toro is not profound

Everyone thinks his adult fantasies are deep. Everyone is wrong.

Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones in 'The Shape of Water.'
(Image credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is unmistakably a fable. It takes place in a stylized, green-tinted version of the Cold War past; its internal logic is vaguely dreamlike rather than strictly realistic; and, perhaps most important, it's a beauty-and-the-beast love story between a shy woman and a majestic humanoid sea creature. But like most of del Toro's films, Water is hardly intended for the typical fairy-tale audience. It's rated R, and even before it indulges in some gruesome violence, it shows the heroine masturbating as part of her daily routine.

That Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is allowed to express sexuality in the movie sets it apart from so many homage-heavy, movie-drunk tributes to monsters and Old Hollywood. Del Toro clearly has designs on an adult sensibility; his previous picture, Crimson Peak, was also rated R, as was his acclaimed kid-starring fantasy Pan's Labyrinth and his comic-book franchise entry Blade II. He's made movies appropriate for 13-year-olds (see the robots-versus-monsters epic Pacific Rim), but unlike so many Hollywood fantasists, he doesn't chase that demographic. He's chasing his muse, and trying to infuse it with the poetry he sees in his influences.

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Jesse Hassenger

Jesse Hassenger's film and culture criticism has appeared in The Onion's A.V. Club, Brooklyn Magazine, and Men's Journal online, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, where he also writes fiction, edits textbooks, and helps run SportsAlcohol.com, a pop culture blog and podcast.