Easily the strangest film this prestige season is Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric romantic masterpiece The Shape of Water. The film opens in Philadelphia at the Ritz Five Friday, December 14th and is a rather unique love story involving a mute woman named Elisa and a mysterious creature trapped in a top-secret government lab. Heavily influenced by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie), the film has del Toro returning to his roots to give us a darkly fantastic fairy tale that has Elisa falling in love with the monster who feels like a hybrid of Abe Sapien from Hellboy and Gill-man from the Creature of the Black Lagoon. When Elisa finds out the gleefully sadistic Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), plans to perform a vivisection on the creature, she puts into motion a plan to save her love and set him free. The film is del Toro at his most unrestrained and best he’s been in years.
Check out the official synopsis below:
Master storyteller Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, Hellboy) casts an other-worldly spell with The Shape of Water, an imaginative fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works as a cleaner, mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine, Maudie) is trapped in a life of lonely isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures, The Help) discover a secret classified experiment. Visually dazzling and emotionally daring, The Shape of Water merges the pathos and thrills of the classic monster movie tradition with shadowy film noir, stirring in the heat of a love story like no other to explore the fantasies we all flirt with, the mysteries we can’t control and the monstrosities we must confront. Also starring Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones and Michael Stuhlbarg.
We have 30 passes for two to an advance screening at the Ritz East Monday, December 11th at 7:30pm. Want to pick up a pass? Simply click HERE and use the following code: PhawkerSOW
NOTE: No cameras, camera phones, or other recording devices permitted in screening. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Theatre capacity is limited and passes won do not guarantee seating. (So please show up early!) Theater is not responsible for overbooking. Ticket holder and guest must enter theater together.