A super-super-secret government agency has discovered a strange, sentient being, and they’re studying it in order to best weaponize it, despite its suffering. That sentence can describe a dozen or so different films. ‘The Shape of Water’ is one of them. But despite all the ‘innocent monster/robot/alien’ clichés, it’s one of the more memorable films of the year.

Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a mute cleaning woman for a secret government laboratory. Her neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins) is her closest, and largely only, friend. To be perfectly honest, the highlight of the film is watching these two. Sally Hawkins is revelatory is Elisa. The fact that she can’t speak is only a small part of her. She’s incredibly expressive throughout despite not having any real lines. We know what she’s thinking and what she’s feeling without any dialogue. Jenkins is also a joy to watch himself. He’s a struggling freelance artist, he has a near endless supply of empathy, and, well, he’s gay in an era when that was frowned upon (it’s set in the 1950s). The two of them make for an entertaining pair and unlikely heroes. Once you take into account Guillermo del Toro’s trademark visual flair and you have quite the film.

That being said, the story leaves a little bit to be desired. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I’ve seen films like this before, and despite the rich characters and lush set design, it still feels pretty predictable. Furthermore, it’s a little frustrating to see a film with such well thought out characters to see them fairly clearly divided as good and bad. But go see it for Del Toro, Hawkins and Jenkins.