Brief Story Line
Movie was set in the 1960s where the US and Russia (Soviet Union at the time) were still competing against one another in various areas. In a secret research facility in the US, a mute cleaning lady named Elisa (Sally Hawkins - Paddington, Blue Jasmine etc) was having a very routine life everyday for years. She lived in a flat above a cinema and had a very kind neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins - The Visitors, Burn After Reading etc). Until one day Elisa's life totally changed when a new finding, a male amphibian creature (portrayed by Doug Jones - Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth etc), was brought into the facility to be researched. The person who managed to capture the Amphibian man or referred to as "Asset", was a tough military officer, Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon - 12 Strong, Nocturnal Animals etc).
Elisa and her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer - The Help, Hidden Figures etc) were asked to do special cleaning on the room where the Asset was being held captive and researched by Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg - Arrival, The Post etc). This was when Elisa get to know the Amphibian man and started to grow some feeling of attachment with him. However, things would start to be complicated when the US military wanted to speed up the process of investigating the Asset and possibly dissect him, plus the fact that the Russians also wanted to get their hands on him.
So what would Elisa do? Would she save him regardless of the trouble she would be in? Find them all in this beautifully crafted movie.
End of Brief Story Line
At first when I saw a trailer to this movie on TV few months back, I was a bit skeptical. I thought the movie seemed a little bit weird and I have doubts of whether I would like it. However, after watching this movie, I could definitely understand and see why it was awarded with multiple nominations and won several of them. The movie started off with a slow pace, but strangely enough, I did not feel bored. In fact my feeling was actually more of intrigued. Perhaps because the first two characters introduced, i.e. Elisa and Giles seemed like interesting people. And then when Zelda (which I thought was portrayed greatly by Octavia Spencer) appeared, I immediately liked her character and the movie felt more colorful. But after the Amphibian man was shown, movie became more interesting where the audience would found themselves rooting for him.
One thing to realize is the movie did not focus on the history of the Amphibian man, but rather its relationship with Elisa and how people would perceive such relationship. I could not help but feel touched (and happy) whenever these two were in the same scene). And the character of Strickland was portrayed brilliantly by Michael Shannon that I really believed he was a very bad person. As the movie focused more on the relationship, I believed that the movie was more like a drama with a touch of sci-fi and a bit of adventure (involving Elisa and her friends).
The movie felt a bit dark and focusing on playing with the audience emotions and definitely not an action movie. As a winner of the Best Picture and Best Director category in Academy Awards, it certainly did not disappoint. I think that Guillermo del Toro truly deserved the praise for directing this kind of intelligent and beautiful movie. The setting of 60s were truly amazing and the music were mostly nice to hear. Plus the acting of Sally Hawkins which I believed was really really great as a kind but lonely mute. Though there was a scene towards the end that I did not really liked, but I guessed it was there to show audience what she really felt in her mind. There were few nude scenes of her which would definitely be cut by Indonesian censorship, but I think it would not have any impact of understanding the story. So it was definitely a movie aimed more towards adults.
My favorite moments were the scenes involving Elisa and the Amphibian man in the beginning and also in the ending, which provided some surprising twist (it should be quite apparent or could have been guessed if you noticed this sort of thing). Overall, personally I think this was a beautiful drama movie that might not be appealing for all audience but nevertheless it was a very good movie. Unlike some Awards winning movie which were truly heavy on the story, this one surprisingly did not have very complicated story line. It was simple enough to understand, yet due to the great film making expertise of Guillermo del Toro became a wonderful movie. Recommended to see this one in theater as we were given the chance to see it on big screen, even if we were quite late compared to other countries. It would be worth your 2 hours. Btw, there was no middle or post end credit scene.
If you are a fan of this kind of movie, you would be satisfied to see this one. But if you prefer a heavier plot movies, or more actions, then it would not be recommended to see this. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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