(CNN) Guillermo del Toro's visual artistry thrives in the realm of fantasy. The director funnels those skills into a sweet but strange container with "The Shape of Water," a sensual if not fully buoyant reimagining of monster classics that essentially transforms "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" into an unlikely land-sea love story. Sally Hawkins provides the movie's melancholy emotional spine as Elisa, a mute cleaning woman in a secret government facility. allowfullscreen>Sad and lonely, Elisa's support system includes her caring co-worker (Octavia Spencer) and gay neighbor (Richard Jenkins), dealing with his own difficulties finding love in this closeted era. Then again, all of that's really secondary to the gradual bond that develops between the unusual captive and the highly empathetic Elisa, which begins innocently enough, if symbolically, with a hard-boiled egg.

Source: CNN November 30, 2017 15:00 UTC