Guillermo del Toro’s enchanting fairy tale comes alive [... in this] seamless blending of practical effects and CGI, showcasing [a] vibrant palette that immerses you in its surreal atmosphere.

| Jan 15, 2025

Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is a beautiful and fully realized film about loneliness and our desire for love.

| Aug 7, 2024

Del Toro has made a film whose dark, sublime, watery beauty is indisputable, and whose story is as much an intriguing "beauty-and-the-beast" ballad as it is a captivating homage to the different and the extraordinary. 

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 2, 2024

However, while The Creature from the Black Lagoon was darker, in The Shape of Water he is a more humanized and warm being, here he is the victim and not a threat, the typical scheme that we know from King Kong (1933) is no longer repeated.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 28, 2023

The meticulous craftsmanship is to be expected in any del Toro film and only adds to the magic spell he puts us under.

| Jun 27, 2023

It balances a harsh 1960s setting with fairy tale magic painted into its big, beautifully-detailed sets. Only del Toro could pull this madness off.

| Apr 20, 2023

You’ll either be charmed by Hawkins’s ethereal, wordless performance or you won’t, but del Toro’s use of a vivid colour palette would impress anyone.

| Feb 14, 2023

Touching and surreal...

| Dec 15, 2022

There is no subtlety whatsoever. You can practically hear del Toro beating his pulpit through much of Shannon’s dialogue.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

With a narrative that resonates in unexpected ways, the film offers a showcase for the talents of its stunning ensemble cast, especially Hawkins, who embodies innocence without becoming a symbol or losing her humanity.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 16, 2022

The Shape Of Water is another success for Del Toro, who has yet to received a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards but looks to be on his way to his first. A film that should be looked at and appreciated for its beauty and message.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 18, 2022

An unadulterated celebration of classical romance, monster movies, and the captivating sorcery of filmmaking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 29, 2021

This intoxicating burst of goodness celebrates connection, the space in-between, the silence of it, a quiet reading of heartbeats, the way we dance inside.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 29, 2021

Leave your cynicism at the door-- there's no place for it here.

| Jul 20, 2021

Ultimately, del Toro's masterpiece is an utter triumph in finding love and humanity in the most unlikely of places - and it asks us to do exactly the same.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 30, 2021

Without making a sound, Hawkins delivers a moving, entirely gestural performance that has charmed critics.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 25, 2021

Social politics have always provided del Toro's films with both subtext and context but The Shape of Water is the most literal translation of his embracing of the Other as beautiful...

| Apr 14, 2021

A romance between two characters who never speak which means Del Toro must depict their love only in visuals. This leads to many beautiful cinematic scenes, including one of the most unique, and but wonderful, sex scenes in recent years.

| Apr 13, 2021

... Worthy of acclaim for its bold imagination, design and straddling of genres, as well as a heavy-weight cast, but it's perhaps more conventional than people might expect.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 25, 2021

A what-if story... What if The Creature from the Black Lagoon found love? What if Beauty and the Beast were set in Cold War USA?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 27, 2021