leonblackwood Review: A lot of people have compared this movie to Amelie, which I haven't seen, so I was going into the film with an open mind. In the beginning, I couldn't see how this film was going to become interesting but once the mysterious creature, and Michael Shannon (Richard Strickland), came into play, I quite enjoyed it. You can't fault the movie for its originality, and brilliant performances from the whole cast but you do have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it. As usual, Guillermo del Toro pushes the visionary experience to the max, and his attention to detail is second to none but I found the whole "Beauty & The Beast" concept a bit weird, especially when they started to get a bit fruity with each other. Anyway, Sally Hawkins plays a mute called Elisa Esposito, who communicates with sign language and works as a cleaner at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, during the Cold War. Her only friends are her workmate, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and her gay next-door neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is a struggling advertising illustrator. When the laboratory receives a mysterious creature, which was captured in the Amazon River by Richard Strickland, who treats it brutally by repeatedly shocking it with an electric cattle prod, Elisa shows sympathy towards the creature by giving him eggs, whilst playing music. She soon realises that it's a male humanoid amphibian, and she regularly visits him in secret, teaching him sign language. Strickland convinces his superiors that they should kill the creature, to investigate his body for Americans gain but one of the scientist, Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlberg), who is really a Soviet spy called Dimitri Mosenkov, wants to keep it alive for further study. Robert is also ordered by his Soviet superiors to kill the creature, so the Russians can experiment on him but he has grown to sympathise with him because of the way that the creature has been treated whilst in captivity. Elisa hears the Americans talking about killing the creature, so she plots with Giles to release the creature into a nearby canal when it rains to give access to the ocean in several days time. During the escapade, Robert decides to help Elisa, along with Zelda who was initially against the plan. Once they get the creature back to Elisa's apartment, she keeps it alive in her bathtub, by using salt and a special substance that Robert gives her. To not look suspicious, Elisa and Zelda still go to work, even though Strickland is interrogating all of there employees but he's unable to gain any information. Elisa then becomes close with the creature and she initiates sex in her bathroom, which she fills completely up with water. Meanwhile, Strickland's superiors give him 36 hours to find the creature, and Robert is told that he will be extracted in two days time. Robert then goes to meet his handlers, with Strickland tailing him, and when Robert is surprisingly shot by his so-called comrades Strickland decides to save him, by killing the handlers. After interrogating Robert about the creature's whereabouts, Strickland kills Robert, and then he heads to Zelda's house to find out where the creature is. Her husband tells Strickland that Elisa has the creature, so he spares there life, and he goes straight to Elisa's, who has been tipped of by Zelda. Strickland finds a note which reveals the plan about escaping in the canal, so he makes his way there, and he shoots the creature and Elisa just before they are about to jump into the water. The creature manages to self-heal himself, so he kills Strickland and he jumps into the canal with Elisa, to try and save her life. Quite a touching story! The love story is strange but sweet at the same time but it's really the performances that made the movie for me. Shannon is brilliant as the villain, and Jenkins made me laugh as the innocent, gay best friend. Spencer was also top class as Elisa's close friend, along with Stuhlberg, who didn't know if he was coming or going through the whole movie. On the downside, no one seemed that shocked when they saw the mysterious creature, and you must be completely out of your mind to have sexual contact with it. I also thought that the whole finger thing with Shannon, was going to lead somewhere, and that whole "fill up the bathroom with water" thing was completely unrealistic. Anyway, I personally enjoyed the film but I don't know if I would go as far to say that it deserved the best picture Oscar this year. I did think that Three Billboards was a better film but Guillermo del Toro deserved the Best Director Oscar, mainly because of his contribution to cinema. Enjoyable!Round-Up: This movie was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also brought you Cronos in 1993, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak in 2015. Coming from an artistry's background, he draws all of his movies in storyboard form before production, and I must admit, he is an amazing artist. He's also an extremely detailed director, whose work can't be fully appreciated unless you watch films a few times. I personally think that he concentrates on the look more than the storyline, especially in films like Crimson Peak and Hellboy II but I'm sure that there are people out there that will disagree with me. With movies like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Pinocchio, Drood and Fantastic Voyage in development, he certainly has a full diary, especially after earning the Best Director Oscar this year. I can't really see a sequel to this movie, judging by the ending but anything is possible in Hollywood.Budget: $19.5millions Worldwide Gross: $195millionsGenre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, Nigel Bennett, Lauren Lee Smith and David Hewlett. 7/10

hirogryn I've been waiting a year to get to see this movie. I have to admit, I had pretty high expectations! I was a little let down, that's why I only gave it an 8. But in general, it was a good movie! I definitely recommend it to all of us creatures of the night! The ending, gawd. Did not expect that! I pretty much never cry out of happiness, but this ending did the trick.

webjunk-62635 The opening music and narrative tell you what this film is about. If you arrived late or were not paying attention don't bother with the rest of the film. You may also need to be above a certain age and most certainly be possessed of an attention span to appreciate this absolute gem. Many reviews, for some odd reason, wish to tell you the story rather than how the story is told. Performances are superb and the brilliant Doug Jones hits the spot again. It is littered with references, from the beginning with the red shoes and cinema offerings, great subtlety and colour. Did anyone else notice the way the heroine blinks at the "interrogation"? PAY ATTENTION!The director's usual mastery of using colour palette to descibe, enhance and explain proceedings (did you notice that in Pan's Labirinth I wonder?, or the film noir type shots in this?)Watch the colour as it is integral to the story.Were they really "goofs"? I think not. The dialogue moves the action around a bit from the supposed dates implied.A beautiful tale beautifully told with imagination and great skill with glorious cinematography which transcends the simple act of the tale.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningElisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute woman, only able to communicate through sign language. The only person who really understands her is her friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer), who works with her as a cleaner at a top secret research facility, where experiments are being carried out on the otherworldly Amphibian Man (Doug Jones.) Elisa comes to form a bond with this beautiful creature and becomes involved in a plot to break him free, setting her on a path with Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), a ruthless senior employee at the place she works.Guillermo del Toro returns out of nowhere, writing and directing this whimsical little slice of fantasy that further showcases his talents as a filmmaker. After becoming known for action adventure fantasies, such as the Hellboy films and Pan's Labyrinth, here he delivers something with more of a beating emotional heart at its core, that seems to have an equalities agenda beating at its heart, with a lead character who uses sign language, living with a closet homosexual, and being best friends with a woman of colour, at a time when this group in society were stuck in menial, dead end jobs they had little hope of getting out of, whilst straight white men really ruled the world. In spite of the typically incredible special effects job done on the Amphibian Man, which don't forget to give him the sweetest, most endearing facial features, its the performances that drive the film, and in the lead role, Hawkins is perfectly cast evoking the right amount of empathy, vulnerability and compassion from this character, making her at times feel even more alien than the creature. By contrast, Shannon, although playing to type, is no less cold and scary as the unfeeling authoritarian determined to keep everything in his twisted version of order. If you can overlook the blatant political correctness, a tiresome and not entirely necessary subplot involving Russian espionage, and the ambiguous but no doubt unwholesome definition of what a woman having sex with some alien thing could be called (beasteality?!?), then this is a stirring and sensational piece of work that, as well as being a dazzling visual experience, perfectly challenges the social attitudes and prejudices of its early 1960s setting. ****