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Film & TV

The Shape

of Water

(TBA) Director: Guillermo del
Toro. Cast: Sally Hawkins,
Octavia Spencer, Michael
Shannon, Richard Jenkins
Released: February 1

In his most overtly romantic
fantasy, director Guillermo del Toro
blows a kiss to a monster.
The guy behind Pan’s Labyrinth
is also, as per last year’s
Crimson Peak, a believer in grand,
melodramatic flourishes.
The Shape of Water is set in
1962 and Elisa (Sally Hawkins,
Film & TV works – somewhat improbably – in
brilliant) is a mute loner who
a secret government facility in
Baltimore. Even though Del Toro
hammers you over the head with
every green-hued retro detail, try
to stay focused on Elisa. She
loves watching musicals on her
tiny TV, and she adores her older
neighbour, an illustrator named
Giles (Richard Jenkins, also the
film’s narrator).
Basically, her life is empty, until
a metal tank is wheeled into her
office, containing an organism that
could be an alien. Made of sinewy
Phantom Thread muscles and quivering scales
(he’s performed, balletically, by
Del Toro regular Doug Jones), it
Lewis, greying, fastidious, never this development until it can no turns out this “asset” is Elisa’s
unpersuasive) rules his private longer; its build-up is consumed Romeo, and The Shape of Water
(TBA) Director: Paul Thomas corner of London’s 1950s haute with the thrill of driving fast in a floats to a magical place.
Anderson. Cast: Vicky Krieps, fashion world. A dresser of wasp- sports car, the elegance of the Their weird mutual attraction
Daniel Day-Lewis, waisted princesses, he pursues clothes and the ritualisation of and Alexandre Desplat’s murky
Lesley Manville his craft in total concentration and Woodcock turning bodies into underwater score works perfectly.
Released: February 1 near-complete silence. “There’s consumable things. It’s almost a A modern fairytale.
entirely too much movement at little too square and prestigey for Joshua Rothkopf
Deceptively hidden under layers breakfast!” Woodcock shouts the maker of Inherent Vice, but
of gorgeous surfaces, Paul with terrifying severity, an then Jonny Greenwood’s delicate THE BOTTOM LINE A magical
Thomas Anderson’s borderline- Anderson hallmark. piano score goes cello-heavy and romance perfectly played out.
sick romance waltzes towards a When his character woos a the mood darkens into neediness
riveting tale of obsession. lowly waitress, Alma (Vicky Krieps, – and worse. For all the latest
Phantom Thread, the writer- purposefully blank), onto his Anderson’s swing of the power
director’s ultra-fascinating tailoring pedestal to be his new pendulum represents his most screening times
bad romance (powered by an object of desire, you cringe on fun piece of direction to date. at cinemas across
uncommonly sophisticated her behalf. It’s sultry, silly and undeniably Abu Dhabi, head to
script by Anderson himself), What an absolute joy it is, wonderful. Joshua Rothkopf
gives us a real hero – or at least then, to watch Alma slowly turn timeoutabudhabi.com/
one who’s earned his perch. the tables on this insufferable THE BOTTOM LINE A pure slice film/cinemas
Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day- creep. Phantom Thread hides of cinematic perfection.
56 January 31 – February 6 2018 timeoutabudhabi.com