The Shape of Water may just be the unlikeliest love story of the year. At the very least, it's the only one you'll see about a mute human woman and an equally mute fish-man creature.
Sounds weird, we know. Yet against all odds, it works. Director Guillermo del Toro uses that romance as a way to explore what it means to be human, what it means to exercise your voice, what obstacles the power of empathy can overcome.
In the process, he serves up what he describes as "a Beauty and the Beast story where the beast didn't transform." This beast doesn't have to change, you see, because love breaks down barriers in The Shape of Water.
In fact, that's where the title comes from. "The shape of water is the shape of love," explains del Toro. "Love and water are the most malleable, powerful things in the universe."
That's a kind of power this world could really use right now – which makes The Shape of Water the perfect fantasy for 2017. As del Toro puts it, it's "a fairy tale for troubled times."
The Shape of Water is in theaters December 1.
