Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water" Stars Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Shannon

Guillermo del Toro's (b Mexico 1964 "Pan's Labyrinth") film "The Shape of Water" is a fantasy love story that shimmers with magic and shaded by prejudice & hatred.  Giles (Richard Jenkins) narrates this love story immersed in covenants & theology.  Giles is the artist neighbor & confidant to Eliza (Sally Hawkins) the heroine of this mythical movie & unlikely love story set in the US in the early 1960s.  Eliza is mute, not deaf & not "dumb" as she is pejoratively referred to by a co-worker who keeps tabs on the interracial friendship between Eliza and Zelda (Octavia Spencer).  The women work the midnight shift cleaning up at a mysterious & ominous scientific lab.  Zelda & Giles have endearing friendships with Eliza and are able to interpret sign language.  All 3 are treated as subterranean citizens; Eliza for being mute, Giles for being gay and Zelda for being black.  Director/screenwriter Guillermo del Toro (b Mexico 1964 "Pan's Labyrinth) submerges racism, homophobia, sexism and US/Russian enmity leagues beneath a fanciful, imaginative story of love & loss, tragedy & delight.  An unlikely friendship is formed between Eliza and an amphibian aqua man creature capable of understanding language, emotions and music.  Strickland (a most menacing Michael Shannon) is the ruthless, sadistic head of operations.  Strickland captured this creature from the Amazon's where he was worshiped as a god and brought him back to be studied by the military; mostly to gain an edge over the Russians who've leaped ahead of the US in the space race.  Eliza & Zelda are assigned to clean the lab where the amphibian is being held and tortured by the villainous Strickland.  Strickland's tormenting the amphibian costs him two of his fingers.  Eliza befriends this magnificent looking "ET" creature who bears all the traits that define one as human including humanity & healing powers.  When Eliza learns Strickland plans to dissect the amphibian she enlists the help of her friends and the unlikely aid of a Russian spy who has spied on their burgeoning relationship.  The look of the film has a magical, neon glow.  The acting by the incredible cast creates   a plausible credibility to this fanciful, farfetched semi-erotic fairy tale.  The actors forged sympathy for the characters and their pitiful plights.   The mores to be garnered from "The Shape of Water" leak through in droplets.  Guillermo anchors a "Splash" ending.  "The Shape of Water" resonating beauty is formed by refracted glares at hatred seen through a misty magical lens.   "Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."