exquisite

Just that one word encapsulates the essence of "The Shape Of Water".
Guillermo del Toro has crafted an exquisite love story in the same vein as "La belle et la bête" in its 1946 French version.
And his leading lady?
Not your ordinary lass, for sure.
Elisa leads a complacent life, beginning each day masturbating in a tub of warm water while the eggs are boiling on the stove for her workday lunch. She is blessed with two good friends. Giles is an aging gay painter, her neighbor. Zelda is a cleaning woman, like herself but black, wed for many years to a man who no longer converses with her.
Both of these people speak sign language, which is necessary to communicate with Elisa. Her vocal cords were sliced when she was an infant, rendering her forever voiceless.
No fairy-tale princess was she.
However, her life is good, as she sees it. She has her two friends who love her, she has a steady job, and she has music - oh, yes!
I totally understand.
Then, one day all of that changes with the entry of two new people at work.
A cruel, hate-filled man has captured an anthropomorphic creature from the Amazon and brought it to the facility for study. The creature had been regarded "as a god" - and no wonder why. It was a magical-looking alien being, with blue and green sparkling lights coursing along its body and fins gracing its outline and back.
Most of the people at the research center are xenophobic, but not Elisa. She has been different all lifelong. "Different" is normal to her. She sees the creature as in need of a friend and she sets about teaching it to communicate, via sign language, of course.
Her actions don't go unnoticed by Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, aka Dmitri, a Russian scientist and spy at the facility. He is intrigued by her ability to communicate with the Amazonian beast. When plans are later made by the sadist to vivisect the creature, Dmitri helps Eliza rescue the beast.
As I said, this is an exquisite love story.
I like that Doug Jones was the man inside the creature suit. I'm familiar with his artistry from a kickstarter project, as well as in the "Hellboy" films - another G. Del Toro offering to the world.
Kudos to him, to Sally Hawkins for portraying an extraordinary heroine, to Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins as Elisa's 'family'.
Also kudos to Michael Stuhlbarg for his conscientious scientist and secret agent in this film... and as the sympathetic and loving dad in "Call Me By Your Name". Carolyn and I saw that film as the second of our love-themed doubleheader today.
What beautiful and lush cinematography of northern Italy! What a sweetly innocent time-capsule of 1983 in the years before AIDS became a concern! What a kind and loving portrayal of a bisexual teen male discovering his gay side! And, last but certainly not least, what a stellar image of Armie Hammer as a blond and tanned hunk, resplendent in his loose shirts and white shorts.
Definitely the stuff of which sweet dreams are made...
Now, she and I are at Applebees to decelerate and to dine. Our food is here, so I am gone...
i thank You, God, for this night of love and dreams of what may be...