by Chris Feil
“You’ll never know...” Is it safe yet to discuss the musical flourish in The Shape of Water? It’s a moment that should remain unspoiled if you haven’t seen it.
Guillermo Del Toro’s interspecies romance is itself in love with the movies, and its genre bending owes as much to classic musicals as it does to Sirkian melodrama and monster movies. Even without the moment in question or Alexandre Desplat’s gorgeous score, the texture of the film recalls old Hollywood musicals from its structure to its overflowing emotionality. But Del Toro actually goes there, and unexpectedly reveals something more than an expression of love from its heroine Eliza, played by Sally Hawkins.
As the third act spells an uncertain fate for our lovers, Eliza struggles to express what their relationship means to her. The lights dim and Eliza begins to whisper, then her mounting declaration twirls into full song and dance. “You’ll Never Know” is the kind of number Eliza had idolized and a feeling she has only recently actualized. As Daniel Walber put it this week in The Furniture, this is a purely cinematic fantasy, but shares equally revelry in all of its genre inspirations.
The musical cliche is that a burst of song is meant to embody a character’s depth of feeling, something that cannot be expressed by words alone. Obviously for Eliza, her words are expressed without sound at all, her muteness just one part of her isolation. However, Water is filled with characters who suppress their feelings rather than release them, making this interlude all the more cathartic and moving. But the moment is somberly finished as swiftly as it began, Eliza’s reality too cruel to escape for too long. The coming end of their affair brings its own pain, but there is also something more personal at stake for Eliza.
The itching thing about Water is that it isn’t just a love story, or at least has a very specific entry into how it is one. Complaints that Water doesn’t feature a romance of much interest beyond its obvious oddness misunderstands the film’s romantic intentions. It’s more about the experience of feeling seen and of being accepted in love than the building of a relationship. It’s about how it feels to be loved when you think you are unlovable.
Never is that insight more present than this musical dive into Eliza’s isolation. It’s more than just a rush of love writ large by the number, it’s the weight of loneliness lifted off of her spirit. At once we’re seeing the fantasy in her mind and a metaphor of her deepest longing, and ultimately her sadness. By making the song purely her own, the one-sidedness of the relationship reveals her arc of overcoming alienation by having her confront her own emotional journey. “You’ll Never Know” becomes at once a love anthem, an “I want” song, and an eleven o’clock number, a last stand for Eliza’s loneliness.
The song’s refrain possesses a weariness like how we protect that which we think will never be understood, by even this kind of connection. There is something to loneliness that is always solely our own, perhaps harder to explain than the love that keeps it at bay. As Eliza experiences this moment in her own head, she’s also struggling to put words to this very idea and with urgency before its too late to express what it’s all meant - now that she doesn’t feel alone anymore, it’s about to be over. “You’ll never know if you don’t know now...”
Isn't love so much easier in the musicals and in our hopes? Luckily, Del Toro has a happier and more hopeful vision for our lonely lovers.
The Best Musical Moments of 2017 | All Soundtracking installments can be found here!