Important! This is a movie you don’t want to find out too much about before you see it, and this post will contain no spoilers. We saw The Shape of Water at the newly renovated historic Tampa Theater.  The movie features fantastic acting by Sally Hawkins, as a cleaning lady at a top secret research lab in the 1960’s, her friend, played by Octavia Butler (who also played an inspirational part in Hidden Figures) who also works there, and Doug Jones, as the amphibian man, the current subject of research at the facility. The story is both sweet and gritty, while the cinematography creates a world you are drawn towards wanting to crawl right into, at times beautifully realistic and at others, amazingly fantastical. There is a villian, played all too convincingly by Michael Shannon, and a bit of violence that I had to close my eyes to. And that’s  all I’m saying, except to recommend you see it. This movie will win awards! 

Oh, and when you go, see it at a good theater. You want a large, crisp screen and a pleasing sound system – the soundtrack is pretty wonderful, too.