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The Shape of Water Dream Dance Is the Best Scene of 2017

No scene in 2017 left me more in awe and deeply moved as The Shape of Water tribute to old Hollywood.

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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The fantasy dance sequence in Guillermo Del Toro’s sublime, The Shape of Water, is the finest single scene in any movie in 2017. The scene begins with Sally Hawkins’ Elisa, just before she must deliver her new amphibian-man lover to the sea. Elisa is attempting to tell this creature, which likely cannot understand her beyond the most basic communication, that she is in love with him. Complicating things further is the fact that Elisa is mute.

As Elisa attempts to squeeze words from her absent vocal chords, her breathy attempts begin to merge with the soundtrack of a film playing in the ornate movie palace on top of which her apartment is located. As the lights slip into a fantasy spotlight set upon Elisa, she suddenly gains voice, taking on the voice of singer Alice Faye from the movie Four Jills in a Jeep (1943), singing the song “You’ll Never Know, Just How Much, I Love You.”

We fade to black only to reopen in black & white. Elisa is now dressed in a lovely silk gown and is on a stage with her amphibian-man lover (Doug Jones). The two then engage in an elegant, old Hollywood style dance number while Elisa continues to mouth Faye’s words. The old Hollywood style is a motif that director Del Toro has alluded to more than once in the film, with Elisa and her neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins) engaging in some seated soft shoe, and of course in the old movies on the marquee and playing inside the ornate movie theater under Elisa’s apartment.

Is the scene necessary? One could argue quite fairly that this fantasy sequence is indulgent and not necessary to the narrative. Indeed, by the time the fantasy sequence arises in The Shape of Water, we are well aware that Elisa and the amphibian-man are in love. We’ve seen them making eyes at each other in the lab, we’ve seen the strange ways the creatures skin lights up at Elisa’s touch and we’ve even seen the beginning of them making love.

So, with that information, is the fantasy dance sequence necessary? Yes and no. Yes, in that it affirms that Elisa’s feelings for the amphibian-man go beyond empathy and curiosity and into the realm of genuine romantic love. No, however, in that her feelings are well enough established by other moments in the film. However, I would add one more in the necessary category when we consider the film from a structural standpoint.

The scene arrives in the midst of the third act. We are about to spend a significant portion of this third act with Michael Shannon's villainous Strickland, who is hunting the amphibian-man with the aim of dissecting it. The beauty and opulence of the fantasy sequence is essential to setting us up for the dark and violent scenes to follow; the grisly murder of one character and Strickland's deadly voyage to wherever Elisa and her lover are headed, a traumatic climax, one that you have to decide for yourself is true or not.

The fantasy is necessary in this moment to remind us all of the beauty that is about to be ripped away from us when we return to the necrotic clutches of Shannon's villain. Without the fantasy sequence we'd be left with nothing but the grim crawl to the finish line ahead that may or may not be a happy ending depending on your perspective. Without the fantasy, The Shape of Water becomes too heavy, it has sex but not enough romance to give us the sense of what may be lost in the ending.

Could this have been achieved with a different kind of scene, one that isn’t an indulgent, old Hollywood, black & white fantasy? Sure, but what’s wrong with a little romantic indulgence? After all, this is a terrific, shorthand way to underline our central love affair. The fantasy belongs to Elisa so it makes sense that the dream sequence be entirely based on her and her love for old Hollywood musicals and her love for this strange creature.

I may be somewhat more ambivalent about The Shape of Water as a whole movie, but I cannot deny that the opulent, indulgent beauty of the fantasy dance in The Shape of Water is best scene in any movie in 2017. Beautifully shot, elegantly staged, and just damn entertaining. This is Guillermo Del Toro at his finest.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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