The Film
If I’m honest, I think I actually tried not to like The Shape Of Water. Fresh from its Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins and beset by reams of cringe-worthy ‘fairy tale for grown-ups’ descriptions, I’d convinced myself that this would be a classic example of a film that I was supposed to like rather than a film that was actually really good.
Happily my resistance to Guillermo Del Toro’s romantic tale of love between misfits (with a capital M in one misfit’s case) lasted all of 10 minutes. Beyond that point, it was just impossible not to get caught up in Del Toro’s beautifully crafted world.
So much care, attention and, dare I say, love seems to have been poured into creating every frame that by the end the film successfully reaches an almost poetic place that makes what might have been mawkish moving; what might have been clumsy cute; and what might have been silly spellbinding. Tellingly, the film’s imagery and themes linger with you long after the final credits have rolled.
Some fine acting – even by the film’s water ‘creature’ – helps, as does the film’s consistently beautiful set design and Alexandre Desplat’s atmospheric, tone-perfect score. But it’s Del Toro’s story, direction and understanding of cinema (compared with the slightly stagey Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) that really bind The Shape Of Water together so elegantly.
In the end, then, it’s hard to take issue with the Academy handing some of its biggest Oscars to such a rich, powerful… ’fairy tale for grown-ups’.
Release Details
Studio: 20th Century Fox
What you get: The 4K Blu-ray, the (REGION LOCKED) HD Blu-ray, and a digital movie code.
Extra features: Four-section making of documentary; Two ‘anatomy of a scene’ featurettes; ‘Masterclass with Guillermo Del Toro’ Q&A session; A conversation with artist James Jean; three theatrical trailers
Best soundtrack option: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Key kit used for this test: Samsung UE65KS9500 TV, Oppo 203 4K Blu-ray Player, Panasonic UB900 4K Blu-ray player
Picture Quality
There’s nothing truly 4K in The Shape Of Water’s ‘pedigree’, alas. It was shot at 3.4K, which was down-converted to 2K for the film’s cinematic release. The 4K release here is essentially a retouched upscale of that cinematic 2K digital intermediate.
Despite this, The Shape Of Water’s 4K Blu-ray picture quality manages to be a rather lovely cut above that of the HD Blu-ray.
While detailing and sharpness don’t leap off the screen as boldly as they do with titles derived from truer 4K sources, there is at least a little more texture to be seen in the film’s exquisite sets; a touch more realism in the weave of clothes; a finer look to people’s hair; a marginal enhancement in the sense of space and depth in the film’s larger sets; and a more refined look to the texture of the water creature’s ‘skin’.
It’s with its gorgeous use of HDR and an expanded color, though, where the 4K Blu-ray really makes its mark. The film’s use of artfully lit and highly stylized sets is taken to a whole extra level by having so much light and shade and so much more color richness to play with.
This isn’t just beauty for beauty’s sake, either (not that I’d necessarily have a problem with that). The extra intensity of the imagery enhances the other worldly, fable-like atmosphere of the story, burning the film’s imagery more deeply into your brain and amping up its visceral, sensual qualities.
Sound Quality
The Shape Of Water on 4K Blu-ray appears with the same DTS Master HD 5.1 soundtrack you also get on the HD Blu-ray.
While it seems a shame that a film with such rich visual environments isn’t accompanied by an object-based (DTS:X or Dolby Atmos) sound track, the bottom line is that it was only created for its cinema release with a 48kHz 5.1 track, so at least we’re not actually being robbed of any extra audio channels by the 4K Blu-ray master.
The mix is decent enough, sounding clear and clean, and working Alexandre Desplat’s score into its five discrete non-bass channels nicely. There’s some nice layering of effects, dialogue and music at times too, and while heavy bass is sparingly used, it does at least sound reasonably rich and clean when it does kick in (for the percussive parts of the score, or the creature banging on his container).
It’s impossible not to find yourself thinking at times that more could have been done with the film’s audio mix. Then again, this may arguably be one of those times where trying to be too showy with the sound might have distracted you from the film’s unusually intimate world.
Extra features
The main event among the extra features (all found on the REGION LOCKED Blu-ray) is a 29-minute ‘making of’ documentary. It’s split into four sections that can each be played individually or as one extended whole, covering the film’s background and themes, the creation of the water creature, the production design (this is the best one), and the score.
There are also a couple of sub five minute ‘Anatomy Of A Scene’ featurettes, showing in more detail how and why they filmed the underwater prologue sequence, and the sequence where Eliza dances with the monster. These are both worth a watch for their insight into the intricacies of the film-making process and Del Toro’s vision as a director.
Also worth five minutes of your time is an interview with artist James Jean, where he talks through some of the gorgeous artwork he created as references for the film and marketing materials.
Following that up is a 14-minute ‘masterclass with Guillermo Del Toro’, where he and various other crew members talk about crafting the film with an audience of what appear to be film-making students. This actually features some really great insight into how to make a monster movie, including some further great footage of the creation of the creature, as well as some nice detail on the Strickland character that isn’t covered significantly elsewhere.
Wrapping the extras up are a series of trailers.
The extras contain enough evidence of how engaging Del Toro can be to make you wish he’d done a commentary track for the film. A gallery of the film’s artwork would have been lovely to see too. But what you do get is satisfactory enough, I guess.
Verdict
The 4K Blu-ray of The Shape Of Water doesn’t have enough detail in either its pictures or sound to make it a demo-grade disc. That said, the addition of HDR and wide color makes an already beautiful film feel even more intense and powerful – and that’s enough in itself to justify a purchase when the film being enhanced is as good as this one.
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If you liked this article, you might also enjoy these:
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ 4K Blu-ray Review: Signs Of The Times
‘Blade Runner 2049′ 4K Blu-ray Review: Special K
‘Murder On The Orient Express’ 4K Blu-ray Review: All Aboard The Resolution Train
