Richard Jenkins plays a gay illustrator in The Shape of Water
Set in 1962, against the backdrop of Cold War in America, Oscar-nominated The Shape of Water is a fairy tale with dark overtones. Guillermo del Toro’s movie is a fairy tale for adults, where there’s gore and sex involved. The main plotline revolves around Elisa Esposito (portrayed by Sally Hawkins) and her daily struggles, until she chances upon a creature. The two, despite not being able to communicate in the usual way (as Elisa is mute, and the creature cannot speak or really understand human behaviour in general), form a deep connection. But before the creature, there was Giles (played brilliantly by Richard Jenkins), Elisa’s next-door neighbour.
Giles is an advertisement illustrator, who also happens to be a closeted homosexual. He is Elisa’s confidant, friend, and family. They both share a great rapport with each other. One of the primary things that perhaps brings them closer together is that they both cannot, as much as they try, express love with absolute freedom and abandonment. Elisa cannot because she’s unable to put into words what she actually feels. It limits her expression. And Giles cannot talk about his personal life without attracting unwarranted attention. It is the 1960s after all.
But what is one of the most saddening things about The Shape of Water is that even after getting shot, Elisa reunites with the love of her life, Elisa’s friend and co-worker Zelda Delilah Fuller (played by Octavia Spencer) has her terrified husband at home to go back to. Even the bad guy, Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) had a wife and a child who cared about his happiness. But Giles is the only one who is left all by himself in the end. He never had anyone, except maybe Elisa. But she also leaves him for the mythical being.
Richard Jenkins plays Giles with care, handling the character like a butterfly, letting Giles dream, fly. And this is especially visible in the scene when Giles attempts to make a move on his crush, and his hopes die a bitter death, as the center of his affections not only harshly rejects his overtures but asks him to never show his face to him again.
But Giles strives. To live and wish for a better day. We see him struggle to get his job back, and despite his better judgment, he chooses to be a good friend to Elisa, and help her rescue the creature at a personal risk. You know you have got a friend for life when he/she is willing to do anything, not just to save you, but to save the love of your life.
“I just think this is such a great arc this guy has”, Jenkins had said in an interview with the Vanity Fair. “The truth is, I loved the whole thing, even those scenes where I’m just watching TV with Sally. I had such fun doing it”.
And when you watch Jenkins on screen, you realise that despite cutting such a lonely figure in an already dark world, Giles has an exuberance about him which makes you really feel for the guy. It is because Jenkins didn’t take the character too seriously that he managed to have fun with it.
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