(89) Fairy tale is a term overused to describe Guillermo del Toro’s work – but it’s ever so fitting here. My wife described this film’s opening sequences as a “Disney princess introduction,” and I knew that I had to steal her phrase. There is whimsy and wonder in those opening images, but also grim foreboding – and the rest of the film ripples out organically from there. The Shape of Water is Guillermo returning to a dark fantasy genre he knows so well, and rekindling the flame of the child within us all.
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