“The Shape of Water,” a sci-fi romance directed by Guillermo del Toro, is about a fast-blossoming relationship between Elisa, a mute custodial worker at a top-secret government lab (played by Sally Hawkins), and an amphibious being nabbed from South America that’s being forced to undergo experimentation at said government lab.
And it all is set in Baltimore. Last night, the movie took home Best Picture at the Oscars.
The segregated city in the 1960s provides an apt backdrop for a movie that fixates so much on other-ness. As for why del Toro decided to use Charm City as his location (albeit while actually filming in Toronto), look to The Sun’s Chris Kaltenbach, who wrote this morning that the Mexican-born director wanted to pay tribute to Barry Levinson’s “landmarks of American cinema” all set here: “Diner,” “Tin Men” and “Avalon.”
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